Truth's Taskforce
by VillainKing90
Summary: So when the Ruler of the Multiverse decided to send me and five others to try and stop this organisation called Qlippoth, I was pretty hyped. Until I realised that the majority of my allies hate my guts. Well, not that I care. Qlippoth, here comes Karma!
1. Genesis

**Truth's Taskforce:**

 **A Soul Sacrifice and Highschool DXD Crossover**

 **A/N:** So this is my first story, We are Six. I first came up with the idea while I was thinking about how there were so little Soul Sacrifice crossovers. Then, I thought that using characters from other games/anime would also be cool. I chose the world of Highschool DXD because I find it really interesting, barring the ecchi. As for the characters, I'll explain them at the end of the chapter, individually.

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DXD, Soul Sacrifice or any other media mentioned. With the exception of the stuff that makes its way out my head. Now on with the story!

 **Story Start:**

 _Location: Unknown_

If anything, the place was underwhelming. The home of the ruler of the multiverse was a simple 4-room house, with a lounge, the four bedrooms, a bathroom and a basement. Even the décor wasn't much to talk about. The TV was your run-of-the-mill 32' inch, the colour scheme of the house was mostly black and white, with a few paintings here and there along the walls. The bathroom had a shower, a bath and a white colour scheme. The four bedrooms were all quite Spartan, with the exception of the master bedroom, which sported blue walls, a queen-sized bed and a dressing table. The lounge had the same colour scheme. The TV was up against the wall and the only objects closing the gap were the mahogany coffee table and the black leather sofas that 'It' was sitting on. Even the name was inconspicuous: The Bridge Between

As the ruler of the multiverse, it had the job of watching over any and all universes that existed. This became too much of a strain, so 'It' created beings that had close to or less than the same amount of power as 'It' to govern over the different universes so that 'It' could have free time. These were 'Its' Administrators. Currently, it was extremely worried. No one would be able to tell though, since 'It' was just energy compressed into a humanoid form. The source of 'Its' worries was Great Red's universe. The True Red Dragon Emperor was one of 'Its' more powerful Administrators, but he was quite lazy in his management of his universe. 'It' couldn't really fault him for that, though. It wasn't as if he needed to control it. He just needed to exist. However, due to his hands-off policy, his universe was in a bit of a pinch.

Naturally, 'It' was worried. 'It' had been watching the various worlds since the beginning of time. Gods, Devils, Dragons, it didn't matter. They would all bow down before 'It'.

Well, not all of them. Some had managed to defy its rule. Great Red, The Shining One and Bhunivelze to name a few. But 'It' wasn't bothered. Polaris might have been, but Polaris was nothing more than an administrator. An employee in 'Its' company. Well, not anymore after The Shining One beat it.

Nay, this new threat was something that scared even 'It'. Qlippoth, an organization started by Rizevim Livan Lucifer, the grandson of the original Lucifer. They planned to resurrect a being that even 'It' might not be able to defeat: 666, also known as Trihexa. Of course, 'It' could just erase them. However, 'It' thought it would be more interesting to send champions to fight Qlippoth. Spending an eternity governing the Multiverse wasn't as interesting as one might think. Also, Great Red might have decided to fight 'It' once he got wind of 'Its' direct interference. The only reason why the DxD hadn't tried to fight 'It' yet was because he couldn't track 'Its' energy. That was not a fight 'It' wanted.

'It' turned its attention to the TV screen in front of itself. Currently, one of the candidates for becoming its champion was fighting an orange haired human. The candidate in question was Ulquiorra Cifer. Also known as the 4th Espada. In many respects, Ulquiorra was the perfect soldier. His judgment wasn't impaired by emotions; he was fiercely loyal and had a substantial amount of power to back it all up. His **Segunda Etapa** was also quite an interesting skill. But he seemed to be doing fine for now. The orange haired human fought hard, but he had no chance against Ulquiorra's **Murcielago**. Well, 'It' would get back to that later.

Next up on the candidacy was Lulu, a summoner guardian who came from the world of Spira. Even though 'It' had overseen the creation of Spira, the black mage's fashion sense didn't cease to amaze. A dress made of belts? In what universe did anyone else wear that? Alas, she made it work. There were quite a few reasons for 'Its' interest in her. She lost two people who were very important to her and stood to lose a third now. Presently, she was battling the creature known as Sin with her comrades. It would take time, but she would make a good den mother for the team. If the next few candidates were anything to go by, that would be sorely needed.

Third on the list was Garth, a Celestrian. He was quite the outlier in his world. A Celestrian without wings wasn't something to take lightly. He'd already saved his world from the threat of Corvus, who wanted to destroy the 'filthy' humans who'd imprisoned him. Which was quite hypocritical, since he fell to hatred, which would make him just as filthy as the humans he wanted to eradicate. 'It' was impressed with Garth's teamwork skills. Especially because he was able to give up dreams of glory to help his comrades when they were in need. Well, that _was_ a Paladin's job. On his screen, Garth was battling a revived Greygnarl. He was casting healing and defensive spells using his new Sage Vocation, while his teammates concentrated on battering Greygnarl with a flurry of attacks. Both sides were starting to get tired, but it wasn't anything life-threatening for now. 'It' noticed that it had run out of milkshake and jellybeans. Not that it needed them, but they _were_ very satisfying. A foot-long glass of vanilla milkshake and a large bowl of large jellybeans appeared on the coffee table. 'It' changed channels and began drinking the milkshake.

On the next channel, another candidate was currently fighting Deus, the leader of the Seven Deities. Asura was a fair bit weaker than Deus, but his Wrath Mantra closed that gap and then some. The idea of anyone gaining enough power to kill a Primordial being (and B-tier Administrator) like Chakravartin through anger alone was quite a scary prospect. Luckily, Asura was able to control his anger to an extent. Although, he might have been at a disadvantage in Great Red's world, due to the absence of Mantra. Well, chakra could keep him.

Fifth on 'Its' list was Saber. Once the queen of Camelot in her universe, she was now a Servant that took part in the 5th Holy Grail War. She was a leader in the truest sense of the word. Most enemies were baffled by her use of an invisible sword, but only enemies on her level knew about the sword's true nature. Her reaction to Great Red's world's versions of Excalibur and Caliburn wouldn't be a good one. That wasn't a problem for now, though.

This left the final candidate. Karma Raja. This man was possibly the one that was most interesting to 'It'. In his world, sorcerers were able to cast spells and defeat vile monsters at the price of their bodies. Even by a sorcerer's standards, Veritas was an oddity. He was the prisoner of a sorcerer gone mad, until he met a talking book. The book was actually the mad sorcerer's best friend, Librom. Librom taught Karma magic in exchange for Karma's defeat of the mad sorcerer, Magusar. 'It' had been watching this battle from the start and its interest was piqued further when it turned out that Magusar had actually been under the influence of the Twin Gods, Cert and Romulus, two of 'Its' weakest Administrators. Nevertheless, Karma fought Magusar and won, even managing to destroy his dragon form with **Black Rite: Excalibur**. At this point in his time, he was about to make his wish to the Sacred Chalice and rebuild the world at the price of Magusar.

Or so he thought.

'It' had already decided what 'It' would do. In that world's time, Qlippoth, or the Khaos Brigade as it was known would take two more years to put their plans in action. That was enough time for the six candidates to gain enough power to derail Qlippoth's plans. It was also a good opportunity for 'It' to see just what the hell Great Red was doing that could let this happen. Even though 'It' was quite ready to let the six candidates continue with their original powers, 'It' would give them the potential to learn some new abilities, but they would still need to train. Otherwise they would just go and defeat Qlippoth and 'Its' show would be over. 'It' began to emit tendrils of energy, which made their way to the different candidates. Once 'It' confirmed that the tendrils were attached to the different candidates, 'It' began to pull. It would take some time for the transfers to take place, but 'It' didn't mind. Spending eternity governing the multiverse did wonders for one's patience. Irrelevant. They would know the truth. Qlippoth and the Khaos Brigade would know of the absolute truth that spared no one. Qlippoth was just another speck in the Multiverse.

 _Location: Las Noches Rooftop_

' _I… was beaten? By a human nonetheless…'_

This was a surprise for Ulquiorra. The battle had begun strongly in his favor. Kurosaki Ichigo had become much more powerful after his battle with Grimmjow, but that didn't mean anything when he fought Ulquiorra. The gap between them was much too big to be closed that quickly. So, even though Kurosaki could now match his base form without the hollow mask, he was still unable to make any headway against Ulquiorra's Resurreciòn, **Murcielago**. However, the fool still wouldn't give up, even though the power gap between them was so wide. That was when Ulquiorra decided to show Kurosaki true despair by unleashing his ultimate skill, **Segunda Etapa**. After that, it wasn't even a fight. Ulquiorra was able to mortally wound the Soul Reaper, but was now interrupted by his Quincy friend. He did notice that Kurosaki's power never really died out, but he didn't pay attention to it.

That was one mistake he wouldn't live to correct. Somehow, Kurosaki had become a Vasto Lorde and gained enough power in that form to annihilate Ulquiorra, at the price of his sanity. He even shook of **Lanza del Rampago** like it was nothing. Unfortunately, Ulquiorra had no answer to this new form of Ichigo's and so Ichigo handily defeated him. The Soul Reaper was moments away from killing Ulquiorra when his friend Orihime stopped him. Even though Ichigo had now regained control over his body, it didn't change the fact that Ulquiorra was at his limit. Currently, his body was turning into dust due to this.

Well, that was until he felt something latch on to him. Ichigo and his friends didn't notice it, but he did. Something was keeping him from dying, almost pulling him back somewhere. Things got even stranger when Ulquiorra began to glow white. Ulquiorra looked down at his hands to try and get some clue as to just what was happening. Another thing was noticed.

Time had stopped. It wasn't that Ichigo and his friends couldn't notice it, they were frozen in time! _'Just what is this? Aizen-sama's Zanpakuto, maybe? No… he's in the fake Karakura Town. So what could this be?'_

" **Oh, score. He has a brain. You know, I'm slightly disappointed in you... Ulquiorra-san."** Said a bored voice. Ulquiorra snapped his neck around and was met with the sight of another person on Las Noches.

Said person was a tall, white humanoid form, complete with a large grin on its face. Ulquiorra chose not to attack, for one reason ad one reason only. _'I feel nothing. I feel absolutely nothing from this being. I would understand if it were attempting to hide it's spiritual pressure. I'd still feel something. But this… This is insane!'_ So he chose to stay calm. If this being could stop time, Ulquiorra didn't really stand a chance in his current state. Besides, anyone who could casually sit on a boulder while he was in **Segunda Etapa** was _definitely_ worth noticing.

" **Never mind, you're back in my good books. Usually, people try to attack me when I do this. Then again you couldn't do much right now… Ah, I can help with that."** The being blasted Ulquiorra with a sphere of light. He would've retaliated, but the sight of his missing body parts regenerating stopped him short. After a few minutes, he was regenerated to the same condition (base form) he was in before the battle Ichigo. Actually, he felt a little different. He'd lost that hollow feeling inside of himself. Also, his Zanpakuto felt slightly different. For any other Arrancar, their Zanpakuto was just a way to store their Hollow aspects. But now, it felt like it was storing something… else.

"What have you done to me? This wasn't just healing, was it?"

" **Hahaha. Smart, aren't you? I enabled the possibility of turning into a Vizard-Arrancar hybrid like Tosen. You would be capable of using Shikai, Bankai and Resurreciòn. I can't tell you your Zanpakuto's new names, however. Now, we wait for the rest of you comrades. I'll explain then. Oh… Someone's coming soon."**

Unnoticed, their surroundings had changed. Now they were both sitting on a leather sofa. In front of them stood a coffee table, which supported a bowl of jellybeans and two large vanilla milkshakes. **"Make yourself at home."**

Ulquiorra had many questions to ask of the being who'd brought him from the brink of death, but they could wait for now.

"Are there any books that I could read around here?" The being's grin grew somewhat.

 _Location: Land of the Almighty_

"Celestria-sama, there's not much to do around here now…" 

"Is that not a good thing, Garth? You didn't seem too happy when you had to fight Corvus. Anyway, did I not ask you to call me 'nee-chan' or 'nee-sama'?" The goddess began to pinch Garth's cheeks.

This was the sight that the other three heroes were viewing after they reported their defeat of Greygnarl. The battle had been even more taxing than their battle with Corvus, but at least they were a lot stronger themselves. They'd all grown quite a bit since then. Garth's hair had grown out a bit, so now he sported a low ponytail that went down to his shoulders. His armor hadn't changed drastically; he still wore Catropic Armour, and used the Storm Spear as well as his Gigasteel Sabatons and Saintly Sollerets along with a Spirit Bracer. But his vocations had changed quite a lot. He was now able to use Sage, Warrior and Armamentalist if the need arose. He was usually the quiet, serious one, but he was never really able to keep up that persona around his 'sister', Celestria.

The second member of the team was Walt, an Armamentalist/Mage. Formerly a scion of a wealthy noble family, Walt decided to go travelling with Garth after the Celestrian saved him. He was also able to use the Mage vocation. He was a slightly pale boy, with neat red hair. He was the second tallest of the group, after their Gladiator Watu. He was a bit of a flirt, but nothing too serious. Well, except for when he was with their Sage, Diana. Then things got out of hand. Walt was the perfect foil to Garth's seriousness. He just watched Garth while burning with envy. Celestria always kept him at arms length. He also wanted to meet a hot goddess, dammit!

Number three on the team was Diana, who was also a Priestess. She had a den-mother-ish personality and acted as the team mediator. She usually had a small smile on her face and didn't get angry a lot (which was better for everyone). She was more gentle than the rest of her comrades, but was quite sheltered, which caused it's own set of problems (like when Watu had to explain concubines at the Gleeba dance hall). She was jealous of the goddess' closeness to Garth.

Their last teammate was Watu, a Gladiator from Gleeba who joined Garth after he was unable to help his queen Voluptua during the Drak crisis. In terms of attack power, he was the undisputed strongest of the four. He was in all honesty, a true berserker. Even Corvus was unsettled by his blood lust. Well, he didn't bother anyone outside of fighting. He didn't really care about the scene in front of him. _"Besides the blatant whipping he's getting…"_

"Ib showwy Celesthia nee-than…" (Read as: "I'm sorry Celestria nee-chan…")

"Hmm, better. Now, even though you have defeated Greygnarl, there are still more enemies in the Grottoes. So don't get big heads and always- Eh?" Celestria was interrupted by the appearance of another being. Everyone's reactions to this varied. Garth looked surprised, but serious. Walt jumped a foot in the air and latched onto Diana, who promptly sidestepped him. Watu just looked bored. There wasn't any fighting for him to worry about.

" **Oh, were you busy? Sorry about that, then. Mmm, what was I going to say...? Oh, yes! Celestria, we need to talk."** Garth was surprised by the familiarity with which the being addressed Celestria. _"Nee-chan knows this guy?"_ The being in question had a (blank) humanoid form where the only interesting feature was the large grin on its face. Celestria curtsied before speaking to the newcomer "Greetings, Truth-sama. It's been a while since I last saw you." The being, now shown to be Truth, put its index finger on its chin.

" **Yes. I haven't really done much since you took over from Zenus, but I need to ask you something. May I take Garth over there? I need him to join an expedition into Great Red's world."**

"What's going on? Has that delinquent done something again?" Truth sighed at this.

" **Not necessarily. There's something brewing in Great Red's world. A terrorist group wants to summon a being which could destroy me, but I want to send the expedition so that they may be stopped."** Before the conversation could continue, they were interrupted by Garth himself.

"Celestria nee-sama, just who is this guy? And what is going on here?"

"To answer your first question, Garth-kun. That's my boss, for lack of a better word. As for what's going on, Truth would like to send you on a trip to another 'God's' world to solve a crisis over there."

" **That's about right. There are more who will help you. They'll also be from different worlds. So you won't be alone. Do you accept?"** Garth looked around at all his allies. He'd shared a lot of memories with them. His first fight alongside Walt (against the Wight Knight). The date with Diana, which nearly got ruined due to a thug trying to hit on her. As well his treasure-hunting spree with Watu and Vritra (a Thief, also from Gleeba). He also remembered his other allies along the way. Mei, the Martial Artist who travelled with them until they beat Corvus, who was now training with Master Wun-Tun-Punch at Alltrades Abbey. There was also Erinn, who always kept a place open for them at her inn. They were all important allies on their journey to fighting Corvus. But they'd saved the world. It would be unbecoming of a Paladin to refuse to help others. He would miss his friends, but he had a duty to fulfill.

" **Meh. Either way, I'll be coming with you. So I don't care."** Said Bombax. Leave it to the hotheaded soul to ruin the moment. Garth turned to Celestria to give his answer "I'll go. I enjoy helping others and I'll miss you guys, but this is my duty as a Paladin and a Celestrian." Celestria smiled thinly, but you could see her sadness. Truth's grin just grew wider, as if Garth had just passed a test **"Well, it's decided. Any last words?"** Diana walked forward until her face was a few inches away from Garth. Being the guy he was, Garth looked at her in surprise "Uh Diana, you're a little clo-!"

One could hear a pin drop in the room. Watu still looked as bored as ever (well this was just another thing he wouldn't tell his queen about), Walt's jealousy increased to the point where it became palpable. Celestria wore a sad smile, while Truth's grin grew to face-splitting proportions. The reason? Turned out that Diana's lips lightly overlapping on his interrupted Garth. After a few seconds, they pulled back. Naturally the couple was heavily embarrassed.

Garth was still in shock _"Did Diana just? Wow, so this is a kiss. No wonder Walt is so obsessed with this kind of thing. Her lips are so soft too…"_

" _I finally did it! I managed to kiss Garth! But he's still going to leave for another world… Take that, Voluptua!"_

So everyone stood in silence for a while, appreciating the gravity of the situation. Then Truth decided to finish what it came for **"Ano, sorry everyone. But we need to go, so cheers!"** Without warning, Truth and Garth began to glow, before disappearing in a blast of light. Celestria stared at the spot where Garth and Truth had stood before _"There goes the last one. It isn't the best of outcomes, but at least he's helped us. Worry not, my champion."_ She pumped her fist in the air _"Nee-san will hold the fort here!"_

She didn't notice everyone else's exaggerated sweatdrops.

 _Location: Bridge Between_

Ulquiorra had become heavily absorbed in his book. The book was about a group of animals at a farm that overthrew their human masters and now had to deal with the challenges presented to them by this. Currently, one of the animal leaders had fled from the farm due to another chasing him out. These pigs made very good hypocrites. In the middle of the room, a white circle began to glow until two shapes rose out of it, and then it disappeared in a blast of light.

The first newcomer seemed to be a clone of Truth, so Ulquiorra didn't take note of it and focused on the second newcomer. If one word could be used to describe him, it would be Gold. Nearly everything about him was golden. His hair, his eyes, even the armor he wore was gold. Well, only the armor on his torso was gold. Everything else was cold steel, with the exception of his spear, which was also gold. Ulquiorra also took note of the second newcomer's holy aura.

" _He's just as strong as I am, if not even more powerful. At least he's an ally…"_

Garth didn't think that someone more powerful than Celestria would live in such an ordinary place. He quickly realized that the 'Truth' with him was some kind of clone, since another one was sitting on the couch, next to a pale dark-haired man. The man had green eyes, with two green tear trails going down from under them. He also seemed to be wearing half of a skeletal helmet.

" _What? I've never seen someone with a… hollow… soul before. On top of that, he seems to be just as powerful as I am. And why is there more than one soul inside of him? I'll keep this in mind."_ Garth put away his weapon and sat down on another chair in the lounge. His new allies were strange, but they didn't seem like bad people.

 _Location: Deciding Grounds_

"Hah, hah, hah… I've… finally… done… it… Gah!" With a cry of pain, Karma Raja dropped onto one knee. Using **Excalibur** had been bad enough, but the after-effects were an entirely different story. Although, it had all been worth it in the end. He'd defeated Magusar, Cert and Romulus. Now his foe lay here, just waiting to be judged. **"Don't fall just yet, you still need to get rid of him!"** Said Librom from his right arm. Karma using all of his strength stood up **"I know. I can't stop now. Especially when the Chalice is right in front of me."** The legendary artifact floated a few meters awayfrom where Karma stood. It spoke **"Human, tell me your wish, so that it may be granted."**

It didn't take very long for Karma to answer. This is what he came for, after all. "I… wish to *Gack*…" he coughed up some blood "restore… the… world."

The Chalice spoke again **"Your wish will be granted. The world shall be restored to what it was before the age of Magusar, at the price of Magusar and the Twin Gods corporeal forms. Sacrifice them to start the process."** Karma held out his hand and clenched it. As he did so, he could feel the familiar ripping of the soul from the body that one felt when Sacrificing.

Magusar writhed on the ground in agony. Karma vaguely wondered if the souls inside of Magusar were also feeling the same pain as him. Alas, he would never find out the answer to that question. Magusar's body exploded in a shower of blood and gore all over Karma, signaling the end of the ritual. Once again, the Chalice spoke: **"You have now completed the process. As promised, the world shall be restored according to your wishes."** The Chalice's light became almost dazzling to Karma. At first he thought that his wounds were finally getting to him, but then he realized that the entire area around him was beginning to glow brighter and brighter, before a final, large flash of light completely blinded Karma.

 _Location: Bridge Between_

The newly minted savior of the world was currently floating around in a world painted white. There was no other feature. There was just endless white. It wasn't as if he would've noticed. Karma had effectively passed out due to the effects of **Excalibur** along with all the other wounds he'd sustained in his battle. That was until now.

" **Hey, hey. You need to wake up now, Karma-kun. Heroes don't get to sleep."** A sharp jolt of pain on the forehead woke Karma up. _"Eh? Where am I? Oh, yeah! I was fighting the dragon and then I made the wish to the chalice to create a new world…"_

He nearly fell backwards after being hit again "WHAT THE FUCK? Who was that?". He looked around frantically for the perpetrator, until he set eyes on a man-shaped mass of energy whose only facial feature was the large grin on its face. **"It's bad to swear, don't you know? Besides, I'm here on business."** Karma righted himself before asking the obvious question in a situation like this "Just who the hell are you? Are you in cahoots with the Twins? Or are you something else entirely?" The being's grin widened **"I'm the corporeal form of Truth. I know the true form of everything and I have power over nearly everything. The Twin Gods are actually beings created by me to govern the Multiverse. Although, they did overstep their boundaries a lot, so thanks for killing them. So yes, I'm something else entirely."**

Karma took a few seconds to process what he'd just been told "Then what do you want?"

" **Me? I'd like you to help me out. Thanks to one of my creation's passiveness, a certain terrorist group is now able to awaken a being that is just as powerful, if not more so than me. I'm assembling a task force of some of the Multiverse's best to try and stop them. You're the third member of this task force."** Karma's formerly surprised expression turned to a frown of concentration. He did want some form of peace now that he'd saved the world, but there was some incentive for going to a new world. Like meeting new people, learning new things and going on new adventures. Well, adventures that he never really got to go on. So he made his decision "Sure. You're making a good point. There's no way I'm going to have a normal life after what's happened with Magusar and the Twins, so a little action won't hurt."

" **Welcome to the club, Karma. Just take my hand and off we go!"** It seemed that the ruler of the Multiverse was quite the creature. Nevertheless, Karma took the ethereal hand. The duo began to glow brightly before vanishing in a flash of light.

 _Location: Bridge Between_

Garth had been watching the video footage of Karma's fight against Magusar and to be honest, he was disappointed. From what he'd seen, the sorcerer was only able to use six spells at a time. Plus he couldn't fly, so he wouldn't be much help off the ground.

That was until he pulled the giant sword out of his _chest_. Once Garth saw that, any doubts he'd had about Karma were shot to hell. Now Garth was afraid of his powers _and_ his brutality when fighting. He was about to voice his thoughts to Ulquiorra, but the Arrancar didn't listen, as he was too absorbed in his book.

For the third time, a white circle began to glow brightly, before disappearing in a flash of light. Once the light began to die down, the third member of their task force was revealed.

Garth simply thought he was strange. The newcomer was slightly taller than him, at 6'2. The large hat he wore mostly covered his facial features with its shadow, but Garth could identify dark hair, dark skin and golden eyes. He also seemed to have some kind of odd tattoo on his face. His outfit consisted of a yellow open coat that split into two coattails at his waist. The coat had only one sleeve, on his left arm. His other arm was covered by bandages, which also had runes on them. The arm radiated a strange power, but that was irrelevant. Garth realized that something was very odd about his new ally.

There was more than one soul in his body. If he'd had two like him, Garth wouldn't mind. But the were THOUSANDS of souls just floating around in there! Some were angry, some at peace, some insane. One had so much bloodlust; it made Watu look like a kitten.

"Oh, are these my new teammates? I'm going to be fighting alongside a golden knight and a hollow bat. This is going to be great… I'm Karma, by the way. Karma Raja." The newcomer then promptly fell asleep on one of the couches. In that moment, Garth decided.

This guy seemed to be more mischievous than Patty. Or at least he had some very questionable habits. By the Almighty he'd just realized something.

There were two of them.

Ulquiorra's thoughts on Karma were different. The guy reminded him of Stark, which didn't really bode well for relations. He never did like the lazy genius type. But the newcomer did seem to be extremely perceptive.

" _He managed to figure out Murcielago's true nature from a single glance. And the power radiating from his arm is just as strong as mine… I might grow fond of these two."_ Then he went back to his book. Richard Dawkins was quite the character.

 _Location: Chakravartin's Realm_

"Who are you?"

It was a simple question. One that definitely needed to be asked. Just _who_ was the glowing being that'd appeared before him after he'd defeated Chakravartin?

" **Ah, yes. I'm Truth. I'm also Chakravartin's boss. Anyway, I'm here to ask you to join this task force I'm creating. Another one of my creations went and fucked up, so I'm creating a task force to deal with the problem. You're one of the people I'm eyeing for it."** The being said all this with a large grin on its face. Honestly, it was just getting unsettling. Well Asura didn't really have any reason to refuse Truth's offer. He'd beaten Chakravartin, saved Mithra and died a satisfying death. But he still wanted to help people out. It seemed that there were still people willing to play with the lives of others, even in other worlds! The wielder of Wrath wouldn't allow this. So like the three before him, he made his decision.

"I'll go. I want to bring down this new threat. I despise those who think they can play with the lives of others." He raised his fist "They will learn to fear my WRATH!" At the last few words, Asura's aura began to flare up. Truth sweatdropped slightly. He didn't really account for all their personality quirks

" **Thank you for that. So, shall we go? Just take my hand."** Asura did so, then the two beings promptly disappeared in a flash of light.

 _Location: Bridge Between_

When Asura first arrived at the Bridge Between, he wasn't sure what to think of the three people in front of him. There was the golden boy, Garth, emotionless Ulquiorra and outwardly frivolous Karma. Asura could respect the first's sense of honor, but he was too rigid for the demigod's taste. The second was hollow. There wasn't any point in being the perfect soldier if you have nothing to fight for. Oddly, the third was the one that Asura respected the most. He was willing to destroy two gods and a dragon, just to repay a debt to a friend. That kind of loyalty was something he could admire, but the sorcerer still had to work out a few kinks with his power. Oh well. Asura realized that the Truth who came with him wasn't there anymore, but Truth was sitting on the couch.

" _A clone I guess."_ Asura was brought out of his thoughts by a voice. **"Hey guys, I have an idea! The next two people are going to take quite a while, so how about we play a game?"** On cue, a box dropped on the coffee table, while three more chairs appeared as well. Karma, who'd woken up due to the commotion, read what was written on the box "Monopoly - South African Edition? What is this?" Truth used it's powers to show them the rules and objectives of Monopoly, before answering, **"This? This is simply the best game in the world. So, what pieces are you guys going to take?"**

 _Location: Throne of Heroes_

Saber was in turmoil. So much had happened in the last few days. Kiritsugu had used his final Command Spells in an attempt to destroy the Grail, but as a result, the mud from the Grail spilled out and destroyed everything in sight.

It was over.

Even so, she regretted it. She wanted to use the Grail to avoid the battle of Camlann. She wanted to have a somewhat normal life in her time, but alas, she couldn't. So here she was, at the Throne of Heroes. Waiting so that she may be summoned by a Master once again and be given a chance to have her wish granted.

However, it seemed that Truth had other plans for her. The being appeared right next to her with the ever-present grin on its face. Saber nearly pulled out her sword, but chose not to once she noticed the lack of aura being emitted by the being. Instead she opted to simply stay alert "Who are you and what do you want?"

The being chuckled **"Me? I'm Truth, Ruler of the Multiverse. You could say that Gaea and Alaya are my employees. Anyway, there's a problem in another world that I'd like you to help me with. One of my other employees messed up and now the Multiverse may become extinct, so yeah. I kind of need your help in stopping this. There will be five other people that will help you, so you don't necessarily need to worry."** Saber frowned in concentration at this. She desperately wanted to save her country, Camelot, but here was a chance to start a new life. Truth could take some kind of guess as to what Saber was thinking. **"Oh, yeah! I nearly forgot. You know, the Grail wouldn't have granted your wish anyway. It probably would've completely destroyed everyone in Camelot and left you and a few of your closest friends and family. Well, I should just show you."** Truth put its hand on Saber's forehead and then showed Saber the events that led up to the corruption of the Grail and the events at the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War. Naturally, Saber was more than a little shocked at what she'd seen.

"Kiritsugu-sama… knew all of this? That would explain the Grail, but then why? Why didn't he tell me this?" As she continued on this train of thought, her eyes began to sting. She was crying.

" **I don't think you should worry too much about what happened here. Anyway, now you know. So are you going to come with me, or are you going to take sometime to mope?"** Truth extended its hand to Saber.

Saber wiped her tears when she saw this. No self-respecting King would take so much time to mourn. She'd had her time and now that she'd found out that she had so little chance to achieve her wish, she would now help her new allies. No one else would ever need to go through what she did at Camlann! So she took Truth's hand. The being's grin grew quite a lot. Then the two vanished in a flash of light.

 _Location: Bridge Between_

"What the fuck? I saw that shit, Baka-Sura! How the hell did you get that much money?"

"Eh? You're the one who sold your best property for a chance to look into Ulquiorra's soul. Don't blame me for your problems."

"Hey, a hollow soul is something new to me! Besides, you six-armed cheat, I saw you sneaking the money in! Put it back!"

"Guys, we should probably stop fighting. It's just a game…"

"Shut the hell up, Goldie /Keep quiet!"

"It would be better if ants like you didn't exist. You talk too much. Asura's nearly out of money too. You both are just so close to broke, a little bit of money looks like a lot."

"Not helping, Ulquiorra…"

" **Hey, this is really interesting. I knew I made the right choice with these guys."**

This was the sight that the fifth member walked in on. Four other people were seated around a coffee table, while Truth was sitting on a couch behind them. She'd already met Truth, so she tried to get a read on the four people in the room.

The first was a pale, green-eyed man with black hair. He sported some green tear trail tattoos and a skeletal helmet that covered half of his head. His aura felt oppressive, but hollow. Judging from his calm, this was probably Ulquiorra.

The next person was someone she approved of greatly. He just exuded the aura of a knight, but it seemed as if there were other aspects to his personality. She didn't mind though. The man wore golden armor, with steel boots, a silver shield, and a dragon-esque helmet. She also noticed the heavy electric aura from his spear, but Saber didn't pay much more attention to it.

From the first time she saw him, Saber just _knew_ that the one in the yellow coat would be annoying. He was really quite different from everyone here. He had dark skin, curly black hair and bright yellow eyes along with a vine-like black tattoo on his face. Saber was a bit worried by the aura coming from his one bandaged arm. It seemed angry, sorrowful, happy and satisfied all at once. She stopped trying to analyze him, lest she went mad.

The white haired one reminded her greatly of Berserker. He did look mostly human, barring his strange markings and glowing eyes. He wore black and red combat pants that were ripped in some areas. Although unlike Berserker, it seemed that he could keep his anger under control, to some degree.

All of them seemed to be in a state of distress over the game. Karma looked ready to murder Asura. Asura had the face of someone who's done something wrong, but won't really admit it. Ulquiorra looked annoyed and Garth was trying to play mediator between the four. It wasn't like she was going to join, so she sat down next to Truth and watched. Truth turned to her **"Refreshments?"**

"Yes, please. There only five of us, correct? So when will the last member come?"

" **Ah, she'll be here soon. Just wait a little longer."**

 _Location: Besaid_

Lulu wasn't entirely sure as to how she should feel. They'd finally achieved it. Lulu along with Yuna and their allies had defeated Sin and Yu Yevon. But she still wasn't satisfied. She still had some of her inner turmoil from the time she spent with Chappu. Yuna was still slightly out of it from Tidus' departure, so she couldn't really talk to her about it. It was same story with Wakka. She was brought out of her thoughts by the appearance of a humanoid being in her room. Before she could blast the being with a well-placed **Thunder** , the being put up its hands in a placating manner. This and the fact that the being had no presence stopped Lulu from attacking.

" **Wait, wait, wait. I'm not here to do anything, Lulu. Well, besides asking you for a favor. If you're wondering about who I am, you can just think of me as Yu Yevon's Boss. While he didn't create Zankarland or Spira, he was the guy I left in charge of it. Oh well, he went and became evil. Well done to him."** Lulu didn't trust the being that much, but at least she wasn't actively trying to destroy it. "Fine. But what is this favor you're asking for? I would think that a being more powerful than Yu Yevon would be able to solve its own problems."

" **True. Well, due to the failure or carelessness of another creation of mine, a terrorist group in another world is trying to resurrect a being with enough power to destroy me. I happen to rule the Multiverse, so if I die, everyone dies. Currently I'm creating a task force to deal with this and you're one of my candidates. Do you accept?"**

Unlike some of the others, the decision came easily to Lulu. The mage did manage to keep Yuna safe, but she wasn't entirely sure about her feelings at this point. She didn't want to leave all her friends behind, but she wouldn't gain any sort of closure here. Any place would work. As long as she could get away from Spira and Zankarland, it didn't matter. New allies might finally be able to change her outlook on the world, so she held out her hand to Truth. Truth and Lulu began to glow brightly, before vanishing in a flash of light. Yuna and the rest would be able to deal with her absence. They'd all grown up now.

 _Location: Bridge Between_

When Lulu arrived at the Bridge Between, she nearly lost faith in her new allies. In her defense, they all seemed like absolute madmen.

"Mwhahahahahaha! Take that, Baka-Sura! I've got a Hotel now!"

"Karma just shut up. You're being noisy." The one known as Karma nearly jumped out of his chair to launch himself at the dark haired man across from him. Another golden haired boy was desperately trying to hold back Karma and another muscular white haired man from destroying each other.

" _Ah, that must be the Baka-Sura he was talking about."_

Lulu also noticed that Truth was now sitting on a couch next to a blonde haired woman with a blue armor-dress. The woman had a similar aura to Bahamut, but with much more charisma.

" **Ah. Our final guest is here. So we can get down to business."** Truth clapped its hands and the room's appearance changed. Now, they were all seated around a dining room table. The general theme of the room was different to the apartment they were in before.

Now the colour scheme was black and red. Everything in the room had a high-quality look to it. Even truth changed its attire to try and suit the occasion. It now wore a pinstriped black suit, a white shirt and a red tie. The men wore the same type of clothing, while the ladies wore a skirt instead of the suit pants and a blouse without the tie. The seating arrangements were as follows: Truth was at the head of the table, Lulu at his right, Garth across from her, Asura sat next to Garth, while Ulquiorra sat across from him and Saber sat next to Asura, while Karma sat across from her. Truth steepled its fingers and spoke.

" **Now that you're all finally here, I can tell you what's happening. As you know, I helped to create and govern all known universes. Each main god could be considered as my employee. They're all known as Administrators. Some overstep their bounds, as some of you may know."** Karma, Lulu and Asura winced slightly at this, but they didn't say much about it. It wasn't very important to them for now.

" **One of my Administrators has been shirking his duties. As a result, a terrorist group in another world is trying to resurrect a being that could destroy me."** Karma raised his hand to interrupt "Hey, but if you're ruling all these worlds, wouldn't it be less of a hassle to just destroy the terrorists before they get too strong? It shouldn't be a problem for you."

" **That is true, but there's a slight problem. The Administrator in question would hunt me down for a fight if he found traces of my direct interference. I don't want to fight him, since we're both are at just about the same level of strength. So I'm sending you guys to try and stop their plans before they get out of hand. Any questions?"** Ulquiorra spoke next "Your reasoning does make sense, but just how is this going to work? If this group is able to summon a being like that, then how are the six of us going to beat them?" Truth was beginning to like these people more and more. The Arrancar raised a good point.

" **Quite perceptive of you, Ulquiorra. I have adapted some of your abilities to better fit the world you're all going to be sent to. If the group goes uninterrupted, their plan should be finished in two years. So you guys will have to years to train your new abilities. Also, you'll be working in predetermined pairs. Your partner will be the person sitting across from you."** On the outside, nobody seemed too surprised, but they were all trying to wrap their heads around what Truth had said.

" _So I'll be working with this Lulu person. She doesn't seem like a bad person. Plus I get to learn new abilities. I won't fail you, Celestria nee-chan!"_

" _I'm working with Asura, then. Oh well. If he gets in my way, then I have no reason to keep him around. At least I'm not with the loud one."_

" _Oh great. I have to work with a Knight. Militar was bad enough. She doesn't look like she'd kill me or anything."_

" _Out of all of these people, Ulquiorra is probably the most compatible with me. He doesn't seem as likely to fall into traps as me. Better than working with Karma. I might actually murder him."_

" _Working with Garth doesn't sound too bad. He actually reminds me a lot of Auron. I don't hate the noble types that much…"_

" _Of all people, I get Karma. Not that I hate him, but judging from his actions during the Monopoly game, he follows no semblance of Knighthood. Actually, he's more like Caster or Assassin in temperament. But that remains to be seen."_

" **Alright. Now that's out of the way. Garth** **and Lulu, you will be tackling the Three Great Powers. Essentially, you two will be a guard team, for important figures in this world. Asura and Ulquiorra will deal with the Yokai Factions. You guys will mostly be a powerhouse team, focused on taking down powerful figures in the organization. Finally, Karma and Saber will be negotiating with the Old Gods. Also, you guys will be a sort of back up team, in case one of the other teams needs your help. So you'll be mostly independent. Here is the basic data on this world. I've also given you the ability to instantly learn languages you listen to in the new world, writing and expressions included."** Six spheres of light left Truth's body and made their way to each of the heroes. They all got a slight headache from the amount of information being give to them, but it wasn't anything too serious.

" **You've gotten your knowledge, so I'll be sending you off now. Your changes should take effect over time and training. Bye!"** All six members of Truth's task force disappeared in a flash of light. Truth took a sip of wine from his glass.

" **I almost feel bad for the Khaos Brigade. Alas, it'll be quite the show for me."**

Character Information:

Name: Saber

Age: Physical (19), Real (Unknown)

Height: 5'0

Appearance: Caucasian woman with green eyes. Wears a dark blue dress, with a steel breastplate, steel gauntlets and greaves. Has blond hair, which is tied in a bun.

Likes: Good Food, Chivalry, Good leadership and Swords

Dislikes: Dishonorable warriors, Karma's antics, Perverts, Corrupt leaders and Bad food.

Weapon/Abilities: Caliburn and Excalibur, Invisible Air, Massive amount of Prana/Mana due to having some dragon blood inside of her. Regeneration and magic armor.

Saber (Real name: Artoria Pendragon) lost her chance to bring back her lost kingdom of Camelot during the 4th Holy Grail War, when Kiritsugu used his last Command Spells to make her destroy the Holy Grail. After hearing the truth about the Holy Grail from Truth, she pledges to try and save anyone from the fate that she'd suffered.

Name: Garth

Age: 15

Height: 5,5''

Appearance: Tan skin; with slightly long golden hair in a low ponytail and golden eyes. Wears the golden Catropic Armor, Dragon Warrior Helm, Heavy Gauntlets, Saintly Sollerets, Spirit Bracer and Silver Shield.

Likes: Treasure hunting, Friendship and Helping others

Dislikes: Megalomaniacs, Dishonesty, Sexual teasing and Frivolity

Weapons/Abilities (Main): Storm Spear, Occasional Magic Reflection due to Catropic Armor, Inhuman defense due to Paladin status, Hammer Skill, Spear Skill, Wand Skill, Spear Skill and Virtue, Heal, Buff, Spell Checker, Midheal, Kabuff, Magic Barrier, Kamikaze, Kerplunk and Mana Reserve boost due to Spirit Bracer.

Garth has been travelling the world while doing his duties as the last remaining Guardian ever since his defeat of Corvus. Among the Taskforce, he is known as the Golden Boy due to his features and choice of armor. Out of all his allies, he could also be the most versatile (with the exception of Karma), as he is able to change his Vocation with Jack's Knack. Even so, he still enjoys being a Paladin.

Name: Ulquiorra Cifer

Age: Physical (25), Real (Unknown)

Height: 5'8''

Appearance: Pale skin, with green tear marks under each eye. Has black hair and green eyes. Has a skeletal helmet that covers half of his head and a '4' tattooed on his chest. Keeps Murcielago in a hip sheath. Wears the usual Espada Uniform.

Likes: Reading, Tea and Learning

Dislikes: Karma, Noisy people, Asura's Aura and Improvisation

Weapons/Abilities: Cero and its variants, Bala, Murcielago, Segunda Etapa, Pesquisa and Sonido

Ulquiorra was saved by Truth after his final battle with Ichigo Kurosaki. He has an ongoing feud with Karma, due to his actions during the Monopoly game and his frivolity despite having a cursed power. Among the Taskforce, Ulquiorra is well known for putting the mission before anything else. This can result in arguments with some of his more relaxed teammates like Karma and Saber.

Name: Asura

Age: Physical (28), Real (Unknown)

Height: 6'2

Appearance: Muscular with tan skin and strange markings. Has glowing white eyes and spiky grey hair. Wears golden gauntlets, along with torn black and red trousers.

Likes: His wife and daughter, a good fight, delivering justice

Dislikes: Control freaks, Arrogance, Karma (More like a rivalry)

Weapons/Abilities: Wrath Mantra and all its transformations

Asura met Truth after defeating Chakravartin, when the ruler of the Multiverse gave Asura an offer he didn't really care to refuse, so he joined the Taskforce. Asura is well known among his allies for his gruff nature, to the point where Karma will sometimes call him 'Salt Man'. He is also the powerhouse of the group, due to his power increasing with his anger.

Name: Lulu

Age: 22

Height: 5'6''

Appearance: Wears a (low cut) dark grey and black dress with fur trimming. The hem and sleeves have lace trimmings. The lower front of the dress is made up of interlocking belts, while she wears a corset. She has red eyes and her black hair is tied up into a bun using hairpins, with long braids going down. Wears a myriad of accessories.

Likes: Reading, Her dolls, Teasing Garth, Finding new ways to use Magic and helping Karma with his schemes.

Dislikes: Zealots, Perverts, Noisy people (with the exception of Karma)

Weapons/Abilities: Black Magic, Dolls

Lulu hadn't found her answer after defeating Sin with Yuna. So despite her wish to try and help her childhood friend, she joined Truth so that she might be able to find her answer. She sees Garth as a little brother and enjoys teasing him about his (lack of) love life. She is also Karma's partner in crime when he plays pranks on people. This is mostly because she's made the decision to be less serious and foreboding, as she now has no reason to.

Name: Karma

Age: 20

Height: 5'7''

Appearance: Has curly dark hair and dark skin. Known for his striking yellow/golden eyes. Also has a vine-like tattoo on the right side of his face, which he hides using magic when in densely populated areas. Wears a variant of Avalon's Intellectual uniform (in yellow), with baggier pants and a black muscle top. Tends to change into a yellow Noble outfit when in desert areas.

Likes: Pranks, Monopoly, Treasure hunting, talking with the souls in his arm and cooking for Saber

Dislikes: Asura (More of a rivalry), Ulquiorra, Control-freaks, keeping still, using Black Rites without good reason

Weapons/Abilities: Librom Grimoire, Ungodly Stamina, Magic Resistance, Ailment resistance, Demon's Resilience, Blight Magic and all related abilities

Out of all his allies, Karma is possibly the most powerful, after Asura. He is also known as the 'One-Man-Army' due to his ability to change his style for any situation, especially now that he can use all of his spells at any time. He is also the fastest out of the Taskforce, thanks to his Evasion/Teleportation spells. Among his allies, he is known as the 'Ultimate Suicidal Bastard' because he continues to use Blight magic despite the cost. Although the majority of the Taskforce doesn't like him, they still respect his strength. That should prove something, right?

 **Finally… Here's the first chapter of my first story, Truth's Taskforce. Since this is my first story, try to cut me some slack (doubtful). All criticism is welcomed, including flames (although I don't like them).**

 **Now, some of you might not agree with my use of Truth as the Ruler of the Multiverse, or my power leveling. Well, I don't care. I will explain at a later point in time. Even though the focus is on the Taskforce, the main character is Karma. I just really like Soul Sacrifice and he's also a blank slate, so score! Cheers.**


	2. The Egyptians

**Truth's Taskforce:**

 **A Soul Sacrifice and Highschool DXD Crossover:**

 **A/N:** **Greetings, people. So this arc is basically the adventures of everyone before the start of canon. People will be learning new abilities and a few Highschool DXD characters will appear. Each chapter in this arc will revolve around the exploits of one of the teams. Well, not all of them, but just a snippet of what the Taskforce has been doing before the start of canon. Enjoy (I hope).**

 **Disclaimer: If I did own any of the anime I mention in this story, I'd be stinking rich and Rizevim would've been dead a** _ **long**_ **time ago.**

 **Story Start:**

 **Chapter 2: The Egyptians**

 _Location: Giza Necropolis, 3 Weeks after being sent to Highschool DXD world_

In the sweltering heat of Egypt, two people were travelling together. One of them was clad in yellow. He wore a yellow, sleeveless bodysuit with a yellow poncho and a cap that covered the top half of his face. Both piece of clothing were covered in runes. On his arms, he wore bandages that also had runes engraved on them.

His companion wore a poncho like her ally, but hers was dark blue, instead of yellow. One could only see her steel boots under the cloak. The man clad in yellow sighed. "Saber… Are we there yet?"

"No Karma, we are not. We're still a few kilometers away from the Necropolis.

"But I'm hungry…"

"Grow a tree, Karma. I know you still have some Arboreal spells for that."

"But they don't help hunger…"

Saber resisted the urge to scream in frustration. She'd been dealing with this for the past three weeks after they were teleported to the Nile riverbank. First on Karma's advice, they decided to learn a bit more about the place they were in. Although Saber couldn't shake the feeling that Karma just didn't want to do much at first.

So the pair went to a town near El Faiyum (Truth had given them some money. Actually, it had given them a fortune). Where they got some information from the locals as to how Egypt operated. They also took the opportunity to figure out their new powers.

Saber found that she was now able to use supplementary magic to boost her skills and that her base abilities were also increased. She could also use elemental magic on Excalibur to boost its abilities. Any other changes would mess up her style.

Karma's abilities got a much more noticeable adjustment. Now, he was able to use both arms for spell casting. Also, he was now able to change the nature of his spells to suit his style of fighting. This was a work in progress. They also found that his six-spell limit had been removed, so now he could use all of his spells at any given time. Karma had also learned how to float using magic, which he would use as his main means of transport. Besides Runic Magic, they found that Karma's Blight rejected any other sort of magic. Karma was currently trying to improve his Black Rites somewhat, but he had to take Phoenix Tears to cure the effects. Plus, it was extremely painful for both parties.

They stayed at the village inn for the duration of their stay, which wasn't all that bad. Unfortunately, during their stay in the village, some of the more… restless residents tried to hit on Saber. To make things worse, Karma decided to get involved and told them in his usual playful manner that they were simply too weak to be of any importance. In the end, what happened next was too much trouble, even for Karma. It turned out that they had actually ended up in a village full of magicians.

 _Two weeks ago_

If anyone happened to walk past the village center, they would've been met with quite the sight. A group of men were surrounding a petite blond girl in a blue summer dress. All the men wore the same lecherous grins. One of the men, a bald-headed and scar-faced giant of a man spoke "Hey sweetie, you're looking a little lonely there… Don't you want to hang out with us?"

Saber didn't really know how to deal with the group of men. Sure, she could have just given them all a beating, but she didn't want to draw attention to herself. Unfortunately, any hopes she might have had about solving this peacefully were dashed when Karma showed up, a book on Egyptian deities in hand. He wore a black muscle shirt and a turban with baggy yellow pants and boots. As always, he wore that smile of his. It was as if he was a cat that had caught a particularly large mouse.

"Hey, Saber. You seem to be in a bit of a pickle there… Should I help you? Or, are you fine? I'll just wait here." The man from earlier took out a knife from his pocket "And who the hell are you? Can't you see we're busy, brat?" This could've ended there. Karma could've just beaten them all up without things getting out of hand.

But nobody accounted for the fact that when it came down to it, Karma could be the biggest asshole to walk this earth. "Oh, well excuse me for interrupting. You guys don't really seem like much, though. I guess Saber can handle you." Even Librom was starting to get annoyed with his friend's antics **"Why do you always have to be so confrontational?"**

"It comes naturally?" Saber face-palmed at this. She really had to wonder just how someone so powerful could be so… Exasperating. _"This may be the way he deals with the effects of his ability. Anyone with powers such as those needs some sort of quirk to keep their sanity."_

Karma had entirely different problems. Some of the men had take out their weapons and all of them moved from Saber to surrounding Karma. Then the bald headed man did something that made even Karma change his carefree attitude. He created a fireball in his open hand and held it under Karma's chin "You'd better apologize boy, unless you want me to burn you to a crisp. Or maybe not, I could just take your pretty girlfriend while you watch. What's it going to be?" The other men also cast their spells. Some had sparks of magic energy running on their bodies, others had magic weaponry, but they all had supernatural abilities. In that moment, Karma and Saber realized something.

"" _All of these villagers… Can use magic?""_ That made things a bit more complicated. But it seemed that this gang used their superior combat prowess to oppress the other villagers. So Karma made his move. He held his arm out, with his palm in front of the bald man's face "Well then, I guess I'll go with the second option, not that you stood a chance. _**Mad Dog's Maw!**_ "

The gang was blown away by a large shockwave that covered the entire street center. The majority of the gang members landed in bazaar stalls and were all knocked out from the impact. Saber used magic to steady herself. The remaining thugs soon wished they'd shared their comrades' fate. _"As expected, they're just slightly powerful weaklings._ _ **Icegiant God's Arm!**_ _"_ Two large gauntlets made of ice encased Karma's arms from the elbow down. Seeing this, the stall owners tried to pack up their wares as quickly as possible so that the fight between the magicians and the sorcerer wouldn't destroy them.

Meanwhile, Saber's right eye began to twitch. She had just gone out to buy some local food, but Karma had to go and do _this_. Now the entire village would know about this! Not that Karma cared. The first one to fall to his fist had tried to charge him with a magically sharpened spear, but Karma just sidestepped the attack and sent him flying into a spice stall, sending all the spices into the air. Another member tried to attack Karma with a fireball, thinking that he was distracted. Karma could feel the intent of his assailant, so he jumped over it and backhanded him into his other allies. This cycle of the thugs launching attacks while Karma countered them continued, until only the bald man who'd started the fight was left. Seeing this, Karma dispelled his arms, which vanished into golden runes. Even though the Blight user had easily dispatched his allies, he still tried to show off "Don't get cocky, brat! Just because you beat the trash doesn't mean that you can beat me!" He turned to Saber "Don't worry, sweetie. I'll just beat this ant, then you an me can have some… _private_ fun." The way he licked his lips sent a shiver up Saber's spine. She'd seen that look too many times in her battles against Camelot's more… excitable enemies. In reply, Karma cast an evasion spell as well as **Firegiant God's Arm.** Two flaming (and decidedly organic looking) gauntlets appeared on his arms. The stall owners tried to pack up their wares as quickly as possible so that the fight between the magicians and the sorcerer wouldn't destroy them.

"You can't use the same spell to beat me, you disrespectful brat! Screw humiliation, I'll just get rid of you now!" But before he could cast another spell, Karma teleported in front of him in a flash of red light and punched him in the stomach with his flaming right arm, which sent him skidding across the dusty road, where he finally stopped in a heap. Karma teleported to the body of his fallen foe "You know, the only reason you guys were worth anything here was because these people were too weak to resist. You wouldn't have stood a chance outside of this village. Remember that."

Unfortunately the leader wouldn't have heard Karma, as he was unconscious. Once he noticed this, Karma frowned "Done already? Meh, you're not really my problem." He left his foe and made his way back to Saber, whose first action was to hit him on the head.

"Ow! Why would you do that?" Karma said while cradling his head. Once he saw Saber's furious expression, he decided to shut the hell up. She was radiating copious amounts of intent to harm "Why? I wanted to sample some of the food that I was told about at the inn. But now I cannot do so, due to your carelessness in starting that fight with those magicians." As she said this, her aura became downright demonic.

" _Oh, I fucked up, didn't I? Alright, time for the last resort."_ Karma needed to defuse the situation quickly. One did not simply get in between Saber and her food. "Wait, Saber. I can make up for this!" Saber seemed to calm down a little, but she still glared at Karma. Under her gaze, even Karma was a little worried "Uh, we _could_ go to a restaurant and get something to eat…" Saber's mood did a complete 180 and she got stars in her eyes.

"Really? You're not lying?" She then gripped Karma by his shirt. "No, I'm not. We can just change at the hotel and then we'll go to the restaurant, Saber." With that, he turned away and vanished in a red flash, leaving Saber behind. Saber didn't really mind that he'd left her. She still needed to do some stuff before she went to the restaurant.

 _Location: Karma's Hotel Room_

 _Time: 19:30_

" **The little child is finally going on a date! Aww, Librom-kun. He's so grown up."**

"Shut up, Sortiara." Ever since the sorceress had solved her problems with her bloodlust, Karma realized that she was extremely doting towards others, especially Librom and to his chagrin, Karma.

" **Karma, you shouldn't be so mean. What will Saber think?"** Karma had to resist the urge to punch something. Yes, he had a fortune, but that didn't mean he would start breaking stuff for no reason. Currently, he was wearing a black suit and a red tie, essentially the same outfit that he wore during the meeting with truth, except this time, there were no stripes and his hair was tidied up, as much as possible. Well, at least it wasn't covering his eyes any more. Karma looked at his reflection in the mirror "So, everyone _except_ Sortiara. How do I look?"

" **Good enough, I would imagine."**

" **Militar, you should really be more expressive. But, I agree with him. Librom, what do you think?"**

" **I think he's fine, Magusar. Good luck."**

"Thanks, guys. We're only going to eat, but this is pretty much a date." Karma had already made reservations, so all that was left was to meet Saber downstairs. He still had to wear his sealing bandages, which sucked. Karma then left the room.

He _really_ hoped that nothing would happen on this date.

 _Location: Hotel Lobby_

Beautiful. That was the only way to describe Saber at that point. She wore a strapless white dress that ended slightly above her knees, silver stud earrings and white pumps. In terms of make up, she only wore some blush on her cheeks, but that was about it. Oddly, her hair was let down and she had a blue brooch in her hair. The nature of the brooch was interesting to Karma.

" _Why a scarab beetle of all things? Anyway, Saber looks amazing – NO, KARMA! You're just going to eat. It's not a date."_ Unfortunately, Librom had to go and mess around with him.

" **Well, it's not like you wouldn't like a date."**

" _Shut up, Librom."_

Fortunately for Saber, she didn't really have the same issues as Karma. She did think that he looked respectable for once, but other than that, nothing really stood out to her.

"Wow, Saber. You look… You look really good."

"Thank you, Karma. You look good too." Luckily, Karma didn't see the light blush on Saber's face. He held out his arm for Saber "So should we go, Saber-chan?" Saber simply nodded to show her consent. Karma cast another evasion spell and the pair vanished in a flash of red light.

 _Location: The Khufu_

The Khufu was an upscale restaurant in the east end of the village. Usually, reservations had to made a week in advance, but since Karma defeated the thugs, the restaurant owner gave Karma and Saber a table in the VIP area, where reservations had to be made a month before. It wasn't due to popularity; it was too expensive for the majority of its patronage. It was due to the amount of preparation that had to be made for them.

Saber and Karma had already taken their seats at their table. Once they'd settled, their waiter arrived "What would you like to order?" Karma looked up from his menu "I'd like a mint mojito."

"Virgin, sir?"

"Yes please."

"One virgin mint mojito… All right. Anything for the lady?"

"I'd like to have water, please."

"Ice and lemon, ma'am?"

"That would be good."

"So, one virgin mint mojito and one water with ice and lemon. I'll be getting those soon." The waiter made his way to the kitchen, leaving Karma and Saber alone at the table. Needless to say, things were a bit awkward. Karma took it upon himself to try and start a conversation.

"Saber, I've wanted to ask; where did you get the brooch? It's pretty interesting to me." Saber began to fiddle with the beetle before answering Karma "Some of the locals who were being harassed by those men gave this to me. They said it was a thank you for getting rid of them." The atmosphere afterwards was one of awkward silence, until Saber broke the silence "Karma, during that fight with the gang… You used your powers, correct?"

"Yeah, I did. Why?"

"It's just that… I remember Truth saying that your power was cursed. Do you mind explaining that?" Karma stared at her for a while, stirring his drink. Not without good reason. He was thinking. Explaining Blight was always difficult. Once he collected his thoughts, he took a deep breath and answered, "Truth is right. As you've seen, my Blight allows me to use powerful spells, at a price. To increase my power, I have to absorb souls. This increases my power, but there is a risk of me going insane from all their thoughts."

'That's _the kind of power he's been using for so long? Suddenly I respect him much more than I did before.'_

They were interrupted by the reappearance of their waiter, who came with their drinks. He put them down in front of the pair and asked them for their next order. Karma ordered a beef stir-fry, while Saber ordered lamb curry. Once their food arrived, any sort of hope for conversation went down the drain. From then, it was Karma watching Saber eat bowl after bowl of food. Even the souls inside of Karma's arm were surprised.

" **Just** _ **where**_ **does that all go? She eats even more than Carnatux…"**

" **Fuck you, Librom. I didn't eat that much!"**

" **Then how the hell did you get that fat?"**

" **Fat? You call me fat, you insane bastard?"**

" **That was Sortiara's shit, not mine, you greedy twit!"**

" _ **Librom**_ **, are you saying that** _ **I'm**_ **the sole reason you went insane?"**

" **Ah… no, Sortiara. I was just… I'm screwed, aren't I?"**

" **Librom, we have a** _ **lot**_ **to talk about…"**

" **We can't talk this over?"**

" **No."**

" **Librom got** _ **whipped**_ **!**

" **Shut up, you dimwit!"**

" **Can't we all just get along?"**

" **I… don't think… so… Ankrah-san. Librom… and… Carnatux no… like… each… other?"**

" **Oh? Radux-san, I didn't know you were awake."**

" **I... have… been awake… for…a…while… Ankrah-san."**

" **SORTIARA, IT DOESN"T BEND THAT WAY! I WANT KIDS, DAMMIT!"**

To avoid a splitting headache, Karma left his predecessors to their bickering and continued to watch Saber in terror. His terror increased when the bill came. He was able to pay, but from that moment he decided; he was doing the cooking if Saber was involved.

' _Wait a second. Librom has no tangible form in my arm.'_ Karma knew from then to always respect the power of women.

XxX

 _Location: The Sphinx_

 _Current Time_

The pair had arrived at the entrance to the Egyptian pantheon's main base. But the infamous Sphinx guarded the entrance. Luckily they knew how to deal with the legendary beast thanks to their information gathering. The Sphinx spoke, in a surprisingly (to Karma) feminine voice **"Travellers, if you wish to go to the place that I guard, you must fulfill one of two conditions: You may answer a riddle of mine. Or you will have to defeat me in a battle."**

"Hard choice. But I'm going with the second option. I despise riddles. What do you think, Saber?" The swordsman was still deep in thought. Unfortunately, the only people she knew who had any sort of aptitude for this kind of thing weren't here. So that left the second option. She pointed her sword at the Sphinx "We'll be choosing a battle." However, they were interrupted by Karma "Wait, if we lose, what happens?"

" **I get to eat you."** There was an awkward silence for quite a while, before Saber threw off her cloak before dashing towards the Sphinx and trying to slice its arm off. Unfortunately, the Sphinx was ready for that and blocked the slash with its paw. **"How impatient. I was still speaking. But an invisible sword… You're quite the interesting traveller."** Saber somersaulted away from the Sphinx and landed next to Karma. "You should be more patient. Otherwise you'll die lonely~" Saber knocked Karma on the back of his head "Karma-san, that is of no importance for now." She pointed her (invisible) sword at the Sphinx "I will defeat you!" she looked at Karma "I'll be able to do this by myself, I think."

The only reason why Saber wanted to do this by herself was so that Karma wouldn't bother her about it later. He was _that_ much of an ass at times.

The Sphinx seemed to smile at this declaration **"Be my guest, traveller. However, your efforts do not matter. In the end…"** The Sphinx pounced on the duo **"I will still make a meal out of you."**

' _ **Mad Dog's Maw!'**_ The Sphinx was stopped by a large shockwave, which Karma emitted. **"That attack was able to repel me. You travellers are much more interesting than the rest."** While she was speaking to Karma, the Sphinx didn't notice Saber, who had gone for a jumping slash while Karma distracted their foe with his shockwave. As Saber descended, she managed to cut off part of the Sphinx's crown before landing next to her. The Sphinx turned to Saber, looking absolutely livid **"How dare you, impudent traveller!"** Their foe's raised paw began glowing with a golden light, before slamming down on the ground.

At least, that was the plan.

Karma had taken the opportunity to grab the Sphinx with **Stonegiant God's Arm** and threw her into a nearby sand dune. "All right! Now this'll hit! _**Blazetree Root!**_ _"_ Once he launched his spell, white-hot flames slithered along the sand and engulfed the Sphinx in a pillar of fire.

Even now, Karma's strength didn't cease to amaze Saber. The same Sphinx, who had blocked her sword with little difficulty, had been thrown like a rag doll. But there was no time to dwell on that. _'I'll need to keep this up._ _ **Haste!**_ _'_ An orange glow began to surround Saber, who left in a burst of god-speed. Karma decided to support Saber from behind, so he ran after her without using evasion spells to augment his speed.

XxX

Saber and the Sphinx were duking it out at the sand dune. Luckily, Saber had used **Protect** and **Reinforcement** on herself. Once again, the Sphinx's paw began glowing before slamming down on the ground. Warriors made out of sand raised head first out of the ground and made their way to attack Saber. She was about to cut down the closest one, when it suddenly exploded. She looked around to find the culprit, who turned out to be a floating Karma launching flaming arrows at the sandmen. "I'll support you from up here! Just focus on beating the Sphinx!" Karma then summoned his own, 5-meter tall flaming golems to help fight the sand warriors using **Flamefiend's Blood**.

Naturally, Sphinx-sama wasn't happy. At all.

" **Do not mock me!"** The Sphinx tried to swat Saber, who parried the blow with her sword and slashed at her foe again, cutting her underbelly. **"GRAAAH! You'll pay for that!"** The Sphinx was getting angrier and angrier at Saber and Karma. Thus, her fighting became sloppy. She tried to bite Saber, who jumped to avoid the attack.

But the Sphinx was prepared for that. She swatted Saber out of the air, sending her crashing to earth. Now that Saber was stunned, the Sphinx prowled towards her, looking forward to her next meal. **"What a shame. You fought well, but now you're going to become my next meal. I wonder if you'll taste any different to the others…"** Licking her lips, she bore down upon Saber, mouth open. Then, out of nowhere Saber grabbed her sword and stabbed the Sphinx in the chest. Trembling, the creature looked at the blade that had stabbed it **"Who… would've thought… You were faking, weren't you?"** She tried to take the sword out with her paws, but Saber stopped her from doing so "I don't enjoy using underhanded tactics, but we needed to finish this quickly." In the end, the Sphinx lost the struggle and faded away into the sand. The rest of the sand warriors faded away, so Karma floated down next to Saber.

"Oh, you're done here. Wait, how are we supposed to get to the Egyptian god's palace now?" As if to answer his question, a large stone gate began to rise out of the sand. Karma looked at his still panting, partner "So, should we go?" Saber just walked past him and went towards the door, entering the building. Karma shrugged and followed her inside.

 _Location: Osiris' Palace_

When they passed through the door, Karma and Saber weren't really expecting to arrive at such a lavish (and suspiciously empty) palace. Nor did they expect to be greeted by someone with a normal, _human_ face.

"So you are the two who managed to destroy the Sphinx. You know, you've given me quite a lot of paperwork… Not. I can repair her anytime. I am Anubis, the god of death. Usually another god or a servant would greet you, but I found you two interesting, so I came instead."

Anubis looked nothing like his image in Karma's book. Well, he was just as lean and muscular, but that was where appearances ended. He wore a linen robe that ended at his knees, with leather sandals. Like Karma, he was dark skinned, but his hair wasn't nearly as curly as his. Also, he had black eyes and no tattoos. He wore a jackal-shaped brooch around his neck.

Saber knelt in respect to the death god, but Karma refused to follow her example. Luckily, Anubis didn't really care about that kind of thing "You don't have to bow down before me. Especially if you two can defy Death like you seem to be doing. Especially the one in yellow, you've found a method for absorbing souls. I believe my kin want to meet you." Anubis beckoned with his hand "Follow me."

 _Location: Osiris' Palace: Throne Room_

"Wow, all these guys are so much stronger than me…" Karma mused. Karma had been very nonchalant about their meeting with one of the Old Gods. Well, he was like that about everything. Saber carried herself with the dignity of a king. Or a queen. It really didn't matter at that point.

There were only three other people in the room, who were all seated on golden thrones. The first person on the right, looked to be about Ulquiorra's age. He had the same complexion as Karma, but unlike Anubis, his hair was long and he wore some make up. His attire consisted of a linen skirt, a necklace with a falcon shaped brooch in the center and leather sandals. In the center, sat another man. He was extremely dark-skinned and was wrapped in ceremonial bandages. He wore a white pharaoh's crown and wore attire similar to the man on his right, but he had a scepter and an ankh. The person on the left was a woman with dark hair. Like the two men next to her, she wore make-up, but added blue eye shadow and wore pink henna dye on her lips. She was curvaceous, but not heavily so. The man in the middle welcomed the travellers "You know, you caused quite the commotion when you defeated the Sphinx. I see you've already met Anubis."

Karma was still worried by something _'You'd think he'd be angry about us killing the Sphinx.'_ As if reading his mind, the man spoke again "Don't worry too much about the Sphinx. I can reform it with my power and besides, it's always getting so angry about small things." The woman next to him smiled sweetly. A little _too_ sweetly. Karma knew that look all too well from hanging out with Saber.

And so did the man, it seemed. "Ah, yes. I'm Osiris, the god of the afterlife. The one on my right is Horus, my son and the woman on my left is my wife, Isis the goddess of fertility. It's good to meet you. Now, to business." Karma and Saber tensed up noticeably at this. Anubis found it slightly odd, but he didn't pay much attention to it. Osiris' voice became much deeper and intimidating.

" **What do you want here?"**

 _A few minutes later_

Horus was really worried right now. What the two travellers had told him had confirmed their fears. The Khaos Brigade, or Qlippoth as the travellers called them had been a pain the Egyptian pantheon's side for a few months now. They had been responsible for a few raids on villages with Sacred Gear users and those with supernatural abilities. Trying to cover up this from the mortals was bad enough. Now they had terrorists too. Osiris seemed to share his son's sentiment "So, you're trying to stop the Khaos Brigade from achieving their goals." The travellers nodded "And you want our help in this, correct? Well, I don't see why not. Having allies as strong as you two would be a good thing. Also, we can exchange information and look over strategies. So you two can stay here for as long as you need to. Our servants will be available to you." As Osiris finished speaking, ethereal men and women began to appear around the palace.

' _So this was why the palace felt so empty. They're all dead. I wonder if I can absorb them.'_ Anubis coughed to get everyone's attention "Now that this is done Osiris-sama, I'll be leaving to go judge some new souls. Goodbye." With that, the god of death made his way out of the room. One of the ethereal servants stood in front of Saber and Karma "Would you like me to take you to the guest rooms?" There was a small sense of accomplishment here. They'd taken one small step in their journey to build relations with the Old Gods.

XxX

 _Location: Osiris' Palace, Karma's Room_

"Wow, this place gets better and better." Karma was lying spread-eagled on his new bed. One of the servants had taken him to the room a few minutes earlier. Tired as he was, he decided to take a shower to relax. Which led to his current position.

Like the rest of the palace, his room was luxurious. On the left side, there was a cupboard, full of clothing for guests as well as a large mirror. On the right, there were two armchairs and a table for guests. The bed was probably the best part: A king sized bed, with white and blue covers. Of course, there was a bathroom, with a shower and toilet. **"I can practically smell the money in this place…"**

' _Is that you, Carnatux?'_

" **Yes it is. By the way, we've made some changes to that boring mindscape of yours. You should see it sometime."**

' _I think I'll pass. I'm happy we've made some progress with the Old Gods. I'll just train tomorrow, I think.'_ Sensing someone's presence, Karma turned to the door "You can come in?" the door opened, revealing…

"Isis? Is there something you need?" The goddess sat down on one of the armchairs before replying "Well no, not exactly. I've noticed something strange about you. There are multiple souls inside of you. Some are pure, others are absolutely terrifying in their evil and others are just incomplete. May I please have an explanation?" Karma contemplated his answer, before deciding that he should play around a bit "My awesomeness is so powerful that my soul split into pieces to try and accommodate?" He instantly regretted his decision once Isis gave him a death glare. The divine pressure filling the room helped as well " _Karma_ , if you don't take this seriously, I will turn you into a lust-crazed beast for the rest of the day. I'm sure Saber won't like that." She said this while smiling a sickly sweet smile.

Naturally Karma cleaned up his act. "Okay, I'll tell the truth." He held up his right arm "You should make yourself comfortable. This is going to be one hell of a story." Isis could sense that he was being serious now, so she did as asked, conjuring a drink for herself.

 _A few minutes later_

"So you are able to absorb souls with cursed arms, use them to power your spells and you have a grimoire that can create a world inside of itself?"

"That's about it?" Isis found the boy quite interesting. Not just because he was strong. He was able to override the influence of Death Gods like it was nothing. In fact, he could be the only person in the palace to have a chance at defeating Osiris. If he wasn't so relaxed about everything. Maybe her next idea would help him out. "Now that you've told me this, I think I can help you with your powers. Usually, Horus trains in the coliseum. I think it would be better for you to train with him. Also, he is an avid user of rune magic, the only type that you're able to use besides your Blight."

She 'accidentally' neglected to tell Karma that Horus didn't hold back in his training, only stopping short of killing his partners.

Ah well, Karma would be fine. Isis got up from her chair "It was good to speak to you, Karma. I will see you tomorrow." With that, she got up from her chair and left the room. Before Karma could settle down, there was another knock on the door "Just come in…" It was Saber. She was in a blue nightdress, though.

Karma sat up from his earlier position "Oh, Saber. What brings you here?" Like the previous guest, Saber sat down on an armchair. "I… felt like coming here." She looked a bit worried when she said that. From that, Karma knew exactly what was going on.

' _Great. This is one of_ those _moments isn't it?'_ He didn't want to call her out on it, though. So he opted to play dumb"Is there any reason why? Usually this ends in me getting beat up or something…" He said while scratching his head. Saber smiled

warmly "No, you aren't in trouble with me, Karma. I just came here to say thank you."

"For what? If this is about the dinner…" Saber gave him a blank look "Oh, it's not."

"I wanted to thank you for your help with the Sphinx battle. Even though I said that you should stay back, you still came and helped me." Karma gave her a blank look "What?"

"Well, why did you thank me? I was going to help you whether you liked it or not" he smiled "So don't worry, Saber."

This man never ceased to amaze her. But, Saber didn't have anything else to say, so she got up to leave. Once she got to the door, she stopped abruptly and turned to Karma "Good night."

"Good night to you too Saber." She nodded before leaving the room. Karma waited for her to leave before falling back down on the bed. _'Time to sleep.'_

XxX

 _Location: Osiris' Palace: Coliseum_

 _The Next Day_

Karma had already arrived at the Coliseum, ready for training. He wore the same baggy pants and muscle shirt. But he didn't wear his turban, as he didn't see the point in that. Horus wore the same outfit as the day before, but he now wore bronze shin guards, no jewelry and he carried a steel/gold khopesh and a bronze shield. Karma also noticed the runes on the sword, but he didn't understand them that well.

 _Play Final Fantasy VII Advent Children OST: Those Who Fight (Piano Version)_

Horus pointed his sword at Karma "It's your move." In reply, Karma settled into a wide-open stance and splayed his fingers. A short, flaming scimitar appeared in his hands. He then brought it up above his head before slashing downwards. Naturally, Horus didn't see the immediate point of this. But then again, in the supernatural world, nothing did make sense the first time you saw it.

' _I should probably get ready for- what the hell?'_ The scimitar had grown until it was able to cover the distance between them and then some. Luckily, Horus was able to roll out of the way of the sword, watching closely as it retracted to its original form "An extending sword… That's an interesting move. Care to show me more?" In a burst of speed, Horus appeared in front of Karma, his sword bearing down upon the sorcerer. Karma managed to block the blow, but he was unprepared for the kick to the side afterwards, which sent him staggering back. Unrelenting in his assault, Horus followed up with another attack that was barely stopped by the sorcerer "This isn't all of your power, Karma! Stop holding back on me!" With another kick, Karma ended up smashing into the wall.

"Hey, your friend is in a bit of a pinch, it would seem. What do you think, Ms. Saber?" Saber didn't answer immediately, as she was completely focused in the fight in front of her. Not that Thoth could blame her. As a god of wisdom, he could read people's moods. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Saber was worried about her friend, who was being knocked around the arena. But he wasn't one to pry.

Once again, Karma had to heal himself. But at least he'd been gaining some ground in this spar. Once he got used to the god's speed, it was a lot easier to counter his attacks. _'Damn it… This guy is super fast! But I can be even faster!_ _ **Stormbird's Pinion**_ _!'_ He covered his body in electricity, before launching himself at Horus, who wasn't ready to dodge the move. As a result, Horus was stunned by the attack. Karma then hit him again, this time sending him skidding back. Now Horus tried to counter, but before he could, Karma hit him again, this time sending him flying a few meters away, before skidding to a halt. "Yes! I finally landed a clean hit on him!"

In the stands, Isis, Thoth and Saber were watching the match intently. Isis was surprised that Karma had managed to hit Horus like that. Usually, a challenger would fight with everything that they had, but then they'd only be able to land one hit before Horus used his runes and smacked them about. _'Well, he will start using his magic now.'_ She was proven correct by the appearance of a golden pillar of energy.

In the ring, Karma was still trying to get a handle on Horus' power, but this was proving a bit difficult. He didn't need to worry that much though, because soon the aura died down, revealing Horus, who was covered in golden hieroglyphs. "That's good. At least you're able to get my attention. But now you'll have to keep up!" Horus rushed at Karma again, who barely managed to sidestep the attack. But then he had to block a slash from the god with **Lava Pot Lid**.

But this wasn't enough. Horus appeared right behind Karma and made an attempt to kick Karma, but Karma managed to stop him _**'Mad Dog's Maw!'**_ However, instead of being blown away like most victims of this attack, Horus was just staggered. But, Karma didn't have time to worry too much. He jumped away from the god to create some distance and then he cast a spell to stall _**'Cursed Talisman!'**_ He shot out a barrage of slow, but painful purple fireballs, which all made their way to Horus.

Unfortunately, Horus wasn't having any of that. The god blew all the fireballs away with a blast of his aura, also kicking up a cloud of dust in the process. _'What? He just destroyed my spell like it was nothing! In that case,_ _ **Fire God's Amulet**_ _'_ Fiery armor began to form on Karma's body. He then created another scimitar, when Horus rushed at him through the cloud, khopesh drawn. He didn't have his shield anymore. Their two weapons clashed and the two tried to push each other back, but Horus was winning, pushing Karma down to his knees. "Hm, you're still holding back I see. Well, now you'll just have to take this serio-!" He was interrupted when Karma rolled back before hitting him with a drop kick, knocking him off his feet. Horus rolled until he ended up back on his feet. Then the god did something strange: He started feeding power to his left eye.

In the stands, Isis and Thoth were watching the events at the ring in surprise. Saber noticed this and decided to ask about what was going on "May I ask what Horus is doing?" Thoth sighed sadly before answering, "Giving me a lot of paperwork. Also known as using his full power. Although, I can't think of any reason as to why."

In the ring, Karma was still debating on whether to use a Black Rite or not _'Well, I guess that I should. That eye seems dangerous.'_ A sickly black aura surrounded Karma. But they never did get to finish their respective techniques, as they were both swiftly knocked out by a chop to the neck. The culprit turned out to be Osiris, who'd noticed the sickly aura coming from Karma and came to stop the two combatants from completely destroying the place. He looked blankly at the duo "I'm sure they aren't supposed to use trump moves that easily." And with that, the spar was over.

 _Location: Bathhouse_

 _A few hours later_

"~Ahh~… Even after thousands of years, the bathhouse never gets boring. What say you, Saber?" Saber was nearly completely submerged under the water. The reason for this being that she was annoyed that Karma would've gone so far as to use a Black Rite during a sparring match. She'd seen the ability before, when they were getting used to their new powers. Needless to say, that was _not_ something you used in a spar. Isis saw the annoyed look on the swordswoman's face and tried to console her "You shouldn't be too worried about those two. My husband can be an airhead, but he _is_ the strongest being in this palace. He should be able to convince those two." Saber's expression lightened a bit, but it was still quite dark "But Karma was about to use such a dangerous attack on Horus. I still want to reprimand him for that." Saber sunk a little further into the water.

Isis didn't see anything off with Saber's statement, but she still went on and teased her "Oh, does Saber have a crush on our little sorcerer?" she said. In reply, Saber blushed wildly "N-no, I do not! We're just allies." Deciding that Saber wasn't lying, Isis decided to relax while leaving the former Servant to her suffering.

 _Location: Karma's Room_

"Karma, I would like to challenge you to another spar!" Horus had wasted little time in coming back to Karma, especially now that he found his powers interesting. Unfortunately, Karma didn't share this sentiment "No, fuck off. I don't want to fight you ever again." He then went back to reading his book. Horus decided to wait for a few minutes before asking again "Will you reconsider?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to."

"But-"

"No. And that's the end of it." Horus took a deep breath "Then…" He took out his blade, while Karma looked at him in shock "I'll have to use force. Only one thought ran through Karma's mind at that point.

' _I'm screwed, aren't I?'_

XxX

 _Location: Bathhouse_

"Saber! Help me out here!" said Karma. Currently, his clothes had cuts all over them, due to Horus' unrelenting attack. He'd come to the bathhouse, hoping that Saber and Isis would help him with Horus, who wouldn't stop trying to cut him.

He didn't account for Saber's reaction to his trespassing. Currently her right eye was twitching while she emitted a dark aura. Her hair covered her eyes, so Karma didn't see her expression "Karma… You do realize that this is the women's bath, don't you?" Karma instantly paled at this. He paled even further when he saw Isis' smile. It was a smile too sweet for Karma's conscience.

"Ah, I can explain this…" Isis' smile grew even sweeter and an evil aura started gathering around her "Explain what, Karma? That you intruded on a lady's privacy? Or how you and Horus wreaked havoc around this palace? I can sense these things, you know." A crackling purple ball of energy appeared in her hand **"Ghadab Al'iiha** (Wrath of the Goddess) **. "** The sphere expanded to the size of a beach ball and flew towards Karma, who jumped out of the way.

That didn't mean that it didn't hit someone else, though. Horus burst through the door "I found you, Karma! Now you'll have to fight m-!" He was hit by the spell and got blown out of the bathhouse, breaking a few shelves along the way.

"Yes! He's finally gone!" He then noticed a cold feeling on his collarbone. The fact that the cold feeling came from a sword exposed the culprit. "Saber… Can't we talk about this? Without the potentially deadly weapon?" Saber's expression stayed blank "I guess not. **Stormbird's Pinion!** " Covered in lightning, Karma shot out of the room at a blistering pace. Saber's killing intent exploded.

"KARMA! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" She rushed out of the bath, clad in only a towel to keep her modesty. That left Isis in the bath, alone. "Well, those two seem interesting." Another ball of energy appeared in her palm "I'd like for them to stay on as allies. Oh well." It didn't hurt to have new friends, especially when people like _him_ were around.

 **All right, that's the end of the chapter! I'm not very sure about the quality of the chapter, so if it is bad, I know. Anyway, we've now met the Egyptians. Next time we skip to 3 weeks before canon in the third chapter: First Day! Meeting the Devils. That's Garth and Lulu's chapter. After that will be Ulquiorra and Asura's chapter. Reviews are appreciated.**

Character Information:

 **Name:** Horus

 **Age:** 24 (Physical)

 **Height:** 6'2'' (187,96 cm)

 **Appearance:** Lean, but extremely well built. A bit dark skinned. Has long hair going down to his shoulders. Wears a wrap around linen skirt, with gold leaf shin guards and sandals. Wears the traditional jewelry for a prince, with a silver falcon necklace.

 **Likes:** A good fight, helping others, honorable people

 **Dislikes:** Set, trickery, holding back

 **Abilities/Weapons:** Khopesh (can be strengthened with runes), Shield, Rune Magic, Aleayn Alyusraa Lihurus (Left Eye of Horus),

Horus is the protector of the monarchy in the Egyptian pantheon. Since his defeat of Set, he hasn't really had much to do. This has resulted in him becoming a bit of a battle maniac. Currently, he is in charge of the Egyptian faction's plans to defeat the Khaos Brigade.

 **Name:** Isis

 **Age:** 32 (Physical)

 **Height:** 5'6'' (167,64 cm)

 **Appearance:** Has long, dark hair (to the small of her back). Has some curves, but not in an erotic manner. Wears a linen dress, with jeweled bracelets and a small golden crown. Also wears make up (turquoise eye shadow and pink henna dye on her lips).

 **Likes:** Baths, animals, kids

 **Dislikes:** Osiris' antics, Noisy places, cold weather

 **Abilities/Weapons:** Immense Magical Knowledge, Sphinx Summoning, Sand Army, Griffin Summon, 'Iilhatan " Alssulijan (Goddess' Scepter), Ghadab Al'iiha(Wrath of the Goddess)

Isis is the queen of the Egyptian pantheon. Like her son and Osiris, she hasn't had much to do since the defeat of Set. She is usually seen practicing magic in the desert or talking with her familiars. She is also quite serious, in contrast with her absent-minded husband. She is also well known for being a master of magic, even among gods like Odin.

 **Name:** Anubis

 **Age:** 23 (Physical)

 **Height:** 5'7'' (170,18 cm)

 **Appearance:** Lean, with some muscle. Bronze skin with short and spiky dark hair. Wears a linen robe, ending at his knees. Otherwise, he looks quite plain.

 **Likes:** Free time, reading, nighttime,

 **Dislikes:** Bustling places, being around Horus, judging souls 24/7

 **Abilities/Weapons:** Magic spear, Instant death (to low tier enemies), becomes more powerful at burial places, can control the dead to an extent.

Anubis is the Judge of the Egyptian pantheon's Underworld. Like Isis, he doesn't really want to deal with eccentricities of Osiris and Horus, so he usually goes to the Underworld whenever nothing's happening. He spends most of his time reading, as there isn't much to do in the Underworld. He is also known to be a recluse. Only Thoth sees him more than once a month.

 **Name:** Osiris

 **Age:** 34 (Physical)

 **Height:** 6'5'' (195,98 cm)

 **Appearance:** Extremely dark skin, lean with some muscle. Wears black eyeliner around his eyes. Also wears ceremonial bandages with his jewelry along with a linen skirt. Carries an ankh and a scepter most of the time. Also wears a white pharaoh's crown.

 **Likes:** Relaxing, messing about, bread

 **Dislikes:** Serious situations, evil people, Set

 **Abilities:** Immense Magical Prowess, Undead control, Rud Al'iiha (Divine Rod), Ankh (Can resurrect the dead, as long as they're weaker than the user)

Osiris is the king of the Egyptian pantheon. Unlike his serious wife, Osiris is quite relaxed and content to just let things come by. Although, when the situation calls for it, he can be extremely intimidating, to the point where even people like Karma and Asura will listen. He usually spends his time talking to the souls of famous leaders, most notably Alexander the Great and Ptolemy. However, even he will have to get serious to deal with the Khaos Brigade.

 **All right, that's the end of the chapter! I'm not very sure about the quality of the chapter, so if it is bad, I know. Anyway, we've now met the Egyptians. Next time we skip to 3 weeks before canon in the third chapter: First Day! Meeting the Devils! That's Garth and Lulu's chapter. After that will be Ulquiorra and Asura's chapter. Reviews are appreciated. Cheers!**


	3. First Day! Meeting the Devils!

**Truth's Taskforce:**

 **A Soul Sacrifice and Highschool DXD Crossover:**

 **A/N:** **Right, so we have Chapter 3! This chapter takes place 3 weeks before canon. Lulu and Garth have already met most members of the Three Factions, excluding the devils. So we'll be focusing on Garth's first day at school and Lulu's first day on the job (as an Art teacher).**

 **I was checking through my chapters today and I realized that I'd made a mistake with Saber's height. She's actually**

 **5'5'' (165 cm). And Karma is 5'7'' (170,18 cm). Well, that's how I see it. Also, depending on where they are, the Taskforce members will change their way of speaking. For example in Japan, they will use honorifics and so on.**

 **Another thing, each character has their own way of seeing things in this story. For example, the parts where the story is told from Garth's point of view will be in first person, while Lulu's will be from the perspective of one of her dolls (Moogle doll) from time to time. Some events will be greatly different from canon, so watch out for that. But this is fanfiction, you really shouldn't expect less.**

 **Disclaimer: I wish I owned at least one of the games/anime mentioned here, but I don't have that spark of genius. So I have to stick to drawing fanfiction.**

 **Without further ado, let's begin!**

 **Story Start:**

 **Chapter 3: First Day! Meeting the Devils!**

"We've arrived, Garth. Are you ready?" The woman speaking turned to a boy in the backseat of the car. The boy had golden hair going down to his shoulders in a low ponytail and golden eyes, with the Kuoh Academy boy's uniform. That consisted of a black blazer, white dress shirt, black pants and a red bow tie. He had his own addition in the form of a blue bracelet and white fighting gloves.

The boy was listening to music with his headphones, but he could still hear his companion "I'm ready. But why this school?" The woman deadpanned through the mirror.

"They offered me a job. Also, according to Azazel-san, some of the Maous' relatives attend there." The woman in question wore her dark hair in a bun secured with two hairpins. The bun had two braids going down to her back. She also wore a white blouse, with a pencil skirt and black stockings. She completed the outfit with a silver necklace, red-framed glasses and black high-heeled shoes.

"I wouldn't trust that perverted fiend, even if he was the last being on earth." The woman laughed a bit "Garth, are you sure you're not just angry because he tricked you into going into the women's bathroom at the Grigori HQ? In his defense, you should have sensed something."

Garth just scowled. Seeing this, the woman smiled warmly "Well, at least you'll get to meet people your age. Maybe even some girls, perhaps?" The boy's face started going red "Lulu-nee, cut it out. I'll wait until I'm ready."

"Or when you have the courage."

"What did I do to deserve this?"

"You got a beautiful sister like me."

"… You know what? Let's just go to the school."

Needless to say, Lulu laughed all the way to Kuoh Academy.

XxX

 _Location: Kuoh Academy Entrance_

You know, when one says 'school', I think of my short stint at Swinedimples. But Kuoh blows that snowy dungeon out of the water! Well it would, if didn't have _them_.

"He's so good looking~ But he'll never beat Kiba-kun~"

"That's fine with me, I'll take him then!"

"Back off, bitch! He's mine!"

Lulu-nee started laughing behind her hand "Well Garth, it seems your classmates like you already." I just gave her a dry look. Fangirls are no joke. Well, they always disappeared as soon as Diana came along. Even so…

" **You know, most guys would be happy about that. Maybe you** _ **are**_ **gay?"**

' _Go away, Bombax.'_

" **Just saying. And hey man, I accept your decision."**

' _Do you_ want _me to call Karma? He's still sour about that time you and Librom started a fight and gave him a splitting headache.'_

" **Whoa, hold up. That guy's no joke. He nearly absorbed me back then!"**

' _Your fault for being even more annoying than him.'_

Lulu-nee turned to me "Well, I need to go meet the rest of my colleagues in the staff room. Enjoy your first day of school." She then kissed me on the cheek before walking off. I wonder why she carries on doing that? Knowing her, it might just be to tease me. Well, it didn't really matter to me, so I made my way to the Student Council's room. There were still some documents I needed to get.

XxX

 _Location: Kuoh Academy, Student Council Room_

The room, in contrast to the rest of the school was decorated in a more antique (but tasteful) style. With a mahogany table, three plush chairs and a large bookshelf along with portraits of past principles on the walls, this was the perfect room for this job.

At least, according to Sona Sitri. 

She had dark hair in a typical bob cut, violet eyes and red glasses. She was quite a beautiful girl, in the 'too serious for you' kind of way. Currently, she was looking through a few documents with a frown on her face.

"Tsubaki, have you seen the new transfer student yet?" The person she was talking to had heterochromatic eyes, one yellow and one blue. Like Sona, she wore glasses, but her hair was in a 'hime' cut and she also wore the Kuoh Academy summer uniform. "You mean Garth Luna? No, I haven't. But he should be coming in today."

Sona put down the documents and steepled her fingers in thought _'Hmm… He and his sister Lulu. They don't have any sort of information on them up until two years ago, when they were reported to have saved a village from an Evil Dragon. Since then, they have been going around the world defeating monsters and meeting with people from the Three Factions. He's mysterious, but not dangerous.'_

"He should be in Kiba-san's class, correct?"

"Yes, Sona-kaichou."

"Then Rias will also be watching him. We'll just have to wait. With Hyoudou being a possible wielder of the Boosted Gear, the situation is tricky." Sona then took a sip of her tea. Unlike Rias, she didn't care to get heavily involved in this. Her peerage was good enough already.

Suddenly, a water fairy came flying through the window. Tsubaki looked at it in interest "Isn't that Yura-san's familiar?" Sona nodded in confirmation. Then the fairy whispered something in her ear. After the fairy finished, Sona visibly blanched. Noticing this, Tsubaki looked at her king in concern "Is there something wrong, Sona-kaichou?" The Sitri heir got out of her seat, frowning in concentration "Yes, very much so. If what Yura-san's familiar said is true, then something huge is happening under our noses. I need to talk to Rias."

 _Location: Kuoh Academy, Class 2-B_

"Do you want to introduce yourself, Luna-san?" said the teacher. He seemed like your average guy. He had messy black hair, black glasses and wore a grey suit with grey pants and a white dress shirt. But he might have just consigned me to my fate with that.

I didn't have to do this in Swinedimples, dammit! But, I had to be nice to these people "I'm Garth Luna. My likes… I like collecting, good music and helping people out. Dislikes… I despise liars. That's about it. I hope we get along. Any questions?"

At first the questions were normal: "Where do you come from?" "Are you a foreigner?" that type of thing. But then people got scary:

"Kyaaa~ He's so cool! If Kiba is a prince, Garth-sama is a knight!"

"Garth-sama, please go on a date with me!"

"TAKE ME, GARTH-SAMA!"

That last comment scared the crap out me. Well, the guys weren't as appreciative of me. I didn't mind that much. Fangirls were bad, but _fanboys_? That would be a whole other evil. And no, I'm not homophobic. It would just be weird.

"Die, you bishounen bastard!"

"Stay away from our girlfriends!"

"You'd better watch your back, trash!"

Do all people in this school do that? Or am I just too used to individuality from hanging around with Dulio-san and the ero-crow? I made my way to the part of my class with the least amount of fangirls, which was a spot at the back. I sat down and greeted my neighbor, a blonde haired boy with blue-green eyes. He definitely matched the whole 'pretty boy' thing. But he didn't seem to like the fangirls either. His aura felt inhuman, but not dangerous, so I didn't really care. He extended his hand "I'm Kiba Yuuto. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise, Yuuto-san."

That could've been a perfectly normal greeting, if one of the fangirls hadn't seen it. But karma (not the other one) hates me like that.

"Kiba-kun and Garth-sama are holding hands! Maybe this is Boy's Love?"

' _Oh no… Please don't do this to me.'_

"A secret relationship between the prince and his knight~" She deserved that nosebleed.

"They're gay? Well then, I guess there's nothing to worry about." Why does everyone jump to that conclusion? I do like girls; I'm just not a pervert like the rest of you hormonal idiots!

' _Watu must be laughing at me somewhere… He'd find this hilarious.'_

 _Location: Gleeba_

"Gahahahahaha! Garth must be surrounded by fanpeople right now! Hehe." Watu's three companions looked at him strangely. Watu's face suddenly turned into the familiar scowl.

"What the hell are you looking at?"

 _Location: Kuoh Academy, Class 2-B_

"So, today we're looking at the events of Vietnam…" The History teacher had been droning on and on for the past twenty minutes. Did he even breath through this? And the fangirls were still staring at me.

" **Okay, even I'm creeped out by this. I can** _ **see**_ **the lust, for Zenus' sake!"**

' _He's dead, remember?'_

" **I don't care."**

Oh, why did I come to this place? Maybe Lulu-nee's having just as bad a time… I doubt it.

 _Location: Kuoh Academy, Class 2-A_

Being a cute doll brings quite a few perks, but there are some things that just suck. Like the over enthusiastic girls staring at me right now. Or those perverted boys staring at Lulu kaa-san's chest. The worst part is, I can't even talk to Lulu kaa-san. She said I can come with her, but I have to keep still, kupo.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Lulu Luna and I'm your new Art teacher. I enjoy reading, researching and a good conversation. I don't like liars, zealots and queues. I hope we'll coexist well." 

Even though this is Lulu's first job in this world, she's doing pretty well already. Oh well, I guess I'm going to have to watch this.

XxX

 _Location: Kuoh Academy, Occult Research Clubroom_

The furniture in this room was in the same style as that of the Student Council's Room, but there was more space in this room. A beautiful (and notably buxom) red haired girl sat at the one desk in the room. Another girl (possibly more buxom) stood next to her. She had long black hair in a ponytail and violet eyes.

"Akeno, have you met the new student yet?"

"Garth? No, I haven't. Ufufufu, does Rias-buchou have a crush on our new arrival? Aren't you chasing Issei-kun? How sinful of you…" Rias' face turned as red as a tomato "No, I don't…" Akeno giggled again "Ufufufu… Rias, are you in denial?"

"I'm not, Akeno! And you don't try to do anything to him, either!"

"May I do things _with_ him?" Rias gave her friend a dry look "Akeno… Just stop. I'm too tired for this." Rias took a sip of her tea. The transfer was interesting, but her priority was Issei. _'Well, I could get Yuuto to bring him here…'_

XxX

 _Location: Kuoh Academy, Sports Field_

My next class was Physical Education, with Saitama Fujiwara; a large, beefy man with a black mustache and buzz cut hair. The man also seemed incapable of doing anything _but_ shout. Or maybe it's just me.

Currently, we (the boys) were all lined up at the starting line of the racetrack. Fujiwara-san wanted us all to do 100 m sprint. Well, my speed is well above the average human, but I'm still sow among supernatural beings, thanks to me still using the Paladin vocation. I did unlock the Hero, but it was nostalgic, okay!

Anyway, Fujiwara-san held up a flag "On your marks…"

"Get set…"

"Go!"

I shot off as soon as the flag came down. I looked around to see if anyone was close by, then I noticed that Kiba was running at the same speed as me. That confirmed it: he was _not_ human. Nevertheless, Kiba and I ran at the same pace until we reached the finish line.

"You both tied at 11 seconds. Well done! You know, you two should consider trying out for the inter-schools competition. The rest of you, get back there until you've improved your time by a second compared to last week! I will make everyone here at least half decent, even if it kills them!" With that, he walked away.

Kiba turned to me "Garth-san, well done on your running."

"It wasn't that difficult. You did well too…" Kiba smiled slightly "Well, I didn't find it as easy as you did, but I'll get there. By the way, I have a message for you." I looked at him curiously "After school finishes today, can you please come with me to the old school building?"

That was an odd request. But I did get the point. If he were really inhuman, then he would have someone he needs to answer to. "Sure. Actually, I'll meet you there. I know where the place is." Kiba smiled again "Well, that makes it easier." He then made his way back to the lesson. It seemed that I'd be getting some answers later.

"Twenty laps for you, Motohama!"

The man could breath once in a while.

XxX

 _Location: Kuoh Town_

Raynare had been in Kuoh for about a week now. The Fallen Angel had come here behind the Grigori's back to monitor the Gremory. Her master had also told her that she'd need to eliminate a boy who might have been the wielder of a powerful Sacred Gear.

But after seeing the boy, she wasn't so sure. Issei Hyoudou had brown hair, brown eyes and was of an average height. All things considered, he was average. But he also happened to be an incurable and idiotic pervert. Raynare was appalled that such a pig could even have a Sacred Gear, but she had to listen to her leader.

Currently, she was watching him from the roof of a tall building next to Kuoh Academy. She was accompanied by one of her colleagues, Kalawarner. Kalawarner took the appearance of a busty and tall woman in her 20's, but she was much older than that. She wore a maroon coat that was a few sizes too small, a miniskirt in the same colour and high heels. Notably, she had long blue hair.

On the other hand, while Raynare had the same body type as her colleague, she had black hair and violet eyes and wore an extremely revealing leather bodysuit. Actually, it was just leather straps.

"Raynare, that boy really doesn't look like much. He has even less magic power than a baby devil!" Raynare gave her friend a tired look "Kalawarner, I know what you mean. But we must go according to Kokabiel-sama's wishes. Mittelt and Dohnaseek are checking up on the exorcists."

"I just don't want to find out that I betrayed Azazel-sama for nothing." Raynare scowled at the mention of their Governor.

"He is no longer our master." Kalawarner sighed and went to sit at the opposite edge of the roof. She did want power, but ever since she'd met the Luna siblings, she'd been having doubts about what her colleagues were doing here.

 _Location: Grigori HQ_

 _One-Year Ago_

Kalawarner was looking at the night sky from the balcony. She wasn't expecting anyone, so she just wore the usual red nightdress. It had been a busy day at work today. The infamous Luna siblings had come to talk to Azazel about a new group called the Khaos Brigade.

The actual talk hadn't taken that long. But after the talk, Raynare had gone and picked a fight with Lulu Luna after the other woman had made a snide comment about Azazel. It would've stopped at that, but then Lulu had gone on to call Raynare a sheep for following the cadres unquestioningly. She challenged Lulu to a fight in the Grigori training room.

Unfortunately, Raynare never stood a chance. It turned out that both the siblings were at the level of ten-winged angels. So the so-called fight had really just been Lulu shrugging off Raynare's attacks and the Fallen Angel narrowly dodging Lulu's. The match had ended when Lulu finally got bored and blasted Raynare with a thunderbolt. Unfortunately, the mage had caused a lot of destruction while she'd been teasing Raynare, so Kalawarner had to get involved with damage control.

She liked watching the sky at night. It calmed her down. The stars all looked so beautiful at this time. She was interrupted from her reverie by a voice next to her "Beautiful, aren't they?" She turned to the intruder. It was Garth Luna, the one her colleagues called 'Gold'. He was wearing a white shirt with jeans and had blue headphones around his neck. She was still staring at him in shock, when he spoke again "Are you there?" She shook her head to try and clear her thoughts.

"Y-yes, I do enjoy being around here. Its my way of dealing with the insanity of this place."

"I can understand that. Your colleagues are a strange bunch. Especially Kokabiel and Raynare. They both seemed so…"

"Angry? I know. Those two never did move on from the War. But there are so many more like them." Garth nodded his head "Yeah, but it would be nice if they could see that anger is only going to make things worse. They aren't the only ones who suffered from that." In that moment, he looked a lot older than he truly was.

Kalawarner looked at the boy incredulously. While she hadn't met many his age that would think like that about something, that wasn't the reason.

No, it was that he genuinely seemed to feel sorry for them. Most would be angry with them, maybe even hate them. But he seemed to want to help them.

' _Even the man who I Fell for wasn't this pure-hearted.'_ Once upon a time, Kalawarner had fallen in love with a human. The human in question was extremely pure hearted. But their relationship was forbidden. He was willing to battle Heaven, to protect his loved ones who were being affected by the Great War. However, she continued to see him. Unfortunately, an Angel killed him in battle. Once she'd found out, she killed the Angel and Fell. Barakiel found her during her depression and took her to Grigori.

Garth Luna reminded her greatly of the man she loved. She really did like the honest type, even if it didn't look like it. She then smiled at Garth warmly "Well, I don't really agree with them either. But I can't do much about them, they're both so much stronger than I am."

"It doesn't have to stay that way, though. You can be stronger than Raynare, at least. How about it?" It was the second time in a few minutes that Garth had shocked her. She'd never really thought about it like that. 

"Stronger than Raynare… I… I think I can do that." A large grin appeared on Garth's face "Then it's decided! Well, I'll go to sleep then. See you later!" With that, Garth made his way back to his room, leaving Kalawarner to her thoughts.

' _Wait… I never told him my name.'_

 _Location: Kuoh Academy_

I'm really starting to dislike the boys at this school. Especially the perverted boys sitting at the front of the class. Hyoudou, Motohama and Matsuda. Those guys have been staring at Lulu the entire lesson, with perverted grins on their faces. But Lulu just takes it in her stride, kupo.

"Since I don't really know much about your artistic abilities at this point, we're going to do a baseline test. I want each of you to create an artwork of your choosing, only using pens, pencils and erasers. You will submit what you've done at the end of the lesson." By the time she's finished, she's already sitting at her desk, kupo.

 _Half an hour later_

Looking at all of these artworks, I can safely say one thing, kupo. These kids are hopeless. One made a sculpture (of Rias Gremory) that had one side deformed, another tried to make an artwork with Lulu as the subject. But with grotesque proportions. And the pervert, Issei Hyodou…

Actually, his was the best made. But the subject… He made a sculpture. It wasn't that bad. In fact, it was a masterpiece. Every detail, every nook and cranny was perfection. But…

It was a sculpture of a woman's breasts, kupo. Of all the things I've seen, this is possibly the most outrageous, kupo! Even Tidus wasn't this much of an idiot, kupo! But as usual, Lulu took it in her stride. Well, she is currently pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Ano, Hyoudou-san? While art _is_ subjective, I'm not sure that this is… Acceptable." Issei looks at her in a state of indignation. He then raises his fist up "Oppai are the best! I can become a better person thanks to the power of oppai! What better way to show that than to make a artwork in honor of oppai?" The entire class stares at Issei in shock. Even Lulu has a dumbfounded look on her face.

Then a wave of killing intent starts flowing from the girls in the class. One of the girls starts cracking her knuckles in a menacing manner.

"Hyoudou, do want to run that by me again?" No smile should be that scary, kupo! But Issei continues to shout, "I said, oppai are the best! And I don't care what anyone else says! Even if the world ends, as long as I have oppai, I'm fine!" A tick mark appears on Lulu's forehead "All of you, keep quiet!" she sighs in defeat "and Hyoudou… Just put that away somewhere. For the sake of my sanity."

"But Luna-sensei…"

"Put. It. Away. Before I burn it and give you detention for indecent behavior." Sulking, Hyoudou puts the sculpture in his bag. Satisfied, Lulu goes back to her seat to judge the other artworks. It's going to be a long day, kupo.

 _Location: Kuoh Town_

"I-it can't be… Why is _she_ here?" Raynare had an enraged expression on her face. Kalawarner just had a thoughtful frown. While monitoring Issei Hyoudou, they'd found that Lulu Luna was at Kuoh Academy, working as a teacher. They'd also found out that Garth Luna was attending the school.

Things got even worse when Lulu looked through the window, before blowing a kiss to the Fallen Angel. "How dare she! I'll kill her!" Kalawarner tried to calm her friend, no colleague down. "Raynare, remember what happened the last time you tried to do that? She threw you around like a broken toy." Raynare gave a malicious smile "Don't worry, one I get Twilight Healing, she'll pay for it."

Once again, Kalawarner sighed and went to the edge of the rooftop. She didn't agree with Raynare, but there was no point in starting a fight right now. The girl could stay in her illusions.

She did want to talk to Garth, though. It had been quite a while since they'd last spoken.

 _Location: Kuoh Academy_

"Oi, Issei! Let me have a look in there!"

"What? You've been hogging this spot the entire time! Just wait, I need to savor these oppai… Hehehe…

"Hehe, those bishounen have been missing out on a lot. Damn them to hell, though. Stealing all the girls…"

This was scene I walked in on, going out to break. The three members of the Perverted Trio were peeking in the girls changing room. The girls had just come back from P.E. Although, I'd really like to know how this is going to help them with their goals.

I mean if they want to see naked girls all the time, they should just get a girlfriend. Alternatively, they could go to a brothel. Not that that would help, either. So I went up behind them to try and talk to them. Lulu-nee did say I needed to socialize with my classmates.

"Uh, what are you three doing?" All three of them jumped in surprise. Then Motohama (bald one) looked at me in anger "What do you want with us, you bishounen? Go find your own spot to peek!" I had to resist the urge to facepalm.

" **If it makes you feel better, I already have."**

' _Thanks, Bombax.'_

"No, that's not really what I want. But you guys should probably get away from here. The girls might catch you." Issei wore a smug smile on his face "But that's part of the thrill! Besides, for oppai, I'm willing to sacrifice this much!" Suddenly, he froze. Being around a pervert like Walt for most of my journey, I could guess why. They'd been discovered.

"Can you hear something?"

"Yeah, it's coming from…"

"The wall! It must be those three! Get them!"

Motohama, Matsuda and Issei looked at each other in fear before nodding to each other "We need to scram!" And so they did. Luckily, they had gotten a fair distance before the girls came out of the changing room. The girls really did hate these three. They were carrying things like kendo sticks, baseball bats and other dangerous items. The leader of the girls came out shouting, "Today is the last day that we will deal with these three. THEY SHALL PAY!"

"HAI!" They then marched in the direction of the Perverted Trio. I decided to follow them, so that I could intervene before things got bad.

 _A few minutes later_

"Matsuda, Motohama… It's been a good run, guys. But, we'll now be paying the ultimate price for the oppai." Issei said, with the air of a general commanding his troops for their final battle. I might have been moved, if it wasn't about something perverted. The girls had caught the Perverted Trio and tied them up. Now they were they were trying to decide what to do with them.

"Beat them to death, I say."

"No, too soft. Show them yaoi comics. Maybe that'll cure their perverseness."

"Castrate them. Then we won't have anything to worry about." Everyone looked at the girl who'd made that comment in shock. She just shrugged her shoulders "Well, it would solve this for sure." Their leader (a tall, black haired girl called Rio) decided their punishment "How about this. We'll hit each one of them once, on any part of their body." Then her expression turned malicious "If they struggle, you can add one more hit." One of the other girls raised up their kendo stick.

"Please have mercy!"

Okay, this was getting a bit out of hand. Before the first hit could land, I jumped in front of the girl and caught the kendo stick in my hand. The girl who'd been holding the stick looked shocked "Garth-sama? Why would you protect these perverts?" I took a look at all the girls in the mob. They all looked pretty angry, for good reasons. But I didn't really agree with their methods "Well, you guys were about to beat them up mercilessly. I do get that you're angry, but you don't need to beat them black and blue. That just makes you bullies. Something I despise." I released a bit of my aura to get the pint across.

After hearing that, the anger gave way to shame. They were ashamed that they would lower themselves to that level for these three. Then their leader, Rio spoke "Well… I guess we were a little overzealous. But if they ever do that again…" She had a cold expression on her face.

"We'll destroy them. Sorry for bothering you, Luna-san." My job done, I smiled at the girl "Eh, I don't mind that much. I'd be angry too." Then she went red, before nodding furiously and running off with the rest of the mob. I didn't understand why, but I didn't care. I had more work to do "Now, you three. While I just bailed you out, you should also try to avoid doing that kind of thing. It's pretty annoying to me." They were still looking at me in anger. Well, except for Issei. He looked grateful.

"See? Now we owe that bishounen!"

"Yeah! We don't need your help!"

I just untied them in silence. Some people never learn. They got up and were about to leave, when Motohama called out to Issei "Hey, aren't you coming, man?" Issei waved them off "I'll meet with you guys later!" Motohama and Matsuda shared a look before leaving. Then Issei turned to me and bowed.

"Thank you, Garth-san. I really thought that I was going to die there!"

"No problem." Issei bowed again, before walking away. Suddenly he stopped and turned around "Hey, Garth-san?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to come over to my house some time? I got some new videos from Motohama!" I just gave him a dry look. He _couldn't_ have forgotten what just happened. Well, I guess he didn't because he coughed before changing his question

"Or maybe we can just play video games?" That was much better. So I nodded and left Issei behind. I made my way to the school shop. All that drama was making me hungry. Besides, I wanted to be alone.

 _Location: Kuoh Academy: Rooftop_

Turns out I wasn't going to get my wish. I found Kiba-san sitting on the rooftop when I went up with my LTC (Lettuce, Cheese and Tomato) sandwich.

"Yo, Kiba-san!" Kiba turned around to see me. When he did, he put on his usual smile "Oh, Garth-san. What're you doing here?" I went to sit next to him on the rooftop and took a bite of my sandwich "Well, I tried to talk to Issei's group, but they didn't seem to want anything to do with me, so I came up here to get some alone time. You?"

"I came up here for similar reasons. It does get a bit noisy after a while."

"The fangirls? I can understand that." Kiba sighed in resignation "I don't really like it, but I don't really know how to tell them that. The most I can do is to reject date offers kindly."

At that moment, I realized.

Kiba Yuuto was a 'Nice Guy' to the core. If it were I, depending on my vocation, I could be more kind than he, or I would've killed everyone in the class by now. But he just did that naturally! Well, I didn't have anything against nice guys; it was just a little weird to me. Oh God, Watu must be rubbing off on me.

"Oh well, I can't really do much for you there. Hell hath no fury…"

"Like a woman scorned. I get it." We ate our food in silence.

XxX

Inside the ORC clubroom, Rias and Akeno were having an argument. This was normal between the two friends, as they would do this about everything. This time, it was about the two points of interest to the ORC.

"Akeno, you will not be doing anything with him!"

"Ara, Rias. You can't have all the boys, ufufufu. How selfish." Rias' face turned as red as her hair "I don't like him like that!" Akeno wore a sadistic smile on her face. "Ara, ara. _I_ never said that…" Realizing her mistake, Rias tried to correct herself, but she didn't have to. Someone was knocking on the door.

"Come in." The door opened, revealing Sona and her Queen, Tsubaki. Sona had a stern expression on her face.

"Rias, we need to talk." Seeing her friend's expression, Rias knew that this was a serious situation. So she sat down on the chair opposite Sona, while Akeno stood next to her. Sona steepled her fingers before she spoke "Rias, we've reason to believe that there are Fallen Angels in Kuoh Town." Rias just gave her a shocked look, while Akeno's face twisted in rage at the mention of Fallen Angels.

"Yes. One of my peerage's familiars followed them to an abandoned church at the edge of the town. This isn't the worst part about this. They also seem to have recruited some Fallen Exorcists into their ranks. That is why I haven't made any sort of move just yet." Tsubaki continued on for her King "Also, we think that may be why Garth Luna and Lulu Luna suddenly decided to go to Kuoh Academy. Something is going to happen here, with Kuoh as the setting. And the Fallen might just be the beginning."

XxX

 _Location: Kuoh Academy, Science Lab_

Currently, I'm in the science lab. Our teacher just decided to let us team up with a partner today and do whatever we wanted. So I went up with Kiba, which started a whole bunch of rumors again.

Anyway, we ended up trying to make a strawberry ester. It went well, so we got to do whatever we wanted until the end of the lesson. So I just had a long conversation with Saber about what we've being doing for the past few months. I also told Lulu-nee about the invitation to the ORC clubroom. She just said that I shouldn't come back home late.

The last time we'd met was when Saber and Karma came to England to try and get some clues on Excalibur. In the end, we ended up having to beat up some devils that wanted the treasure in the site.

I was brought out of my thoughts when the teacher finally dismissed us. When I finished taking my bags, Kiba was already standing there.

"So, shall we go to the old school building?" I nodded and followed him to our destination.

 _Location: Kuoh Academy, Occult Research Clubroom_

"This is the place." After a few minutes of walking, we'd finally reached the front door of the ORC clubroom. Kiba opened the door, letting me in first, before he followed.

The room was tastefully decorated. If anything, the style reminded me of what you'd see in Stornway or Bloomingdale. The people in the room were also new. On the sofa, sat a petite, white haired girl who had two cat hairpins in her hair. She was eating sweets.

Standing next to her was a tall, black haired girl with violet eyes. The way she looked at me was a little creepy. Even Watu would have found that kind of weird.

" **My question is: What kind of girl her age has breasts that big? Even Gabriel's weren't that big!"** Leave it to Bombax to make things weird. I heard the sound of water running, so I looked around the room to find the source only to find…

"A shower? You guys have a shower in here? And just who the hell takes a shower when they've invited a guest?" Kiba piped up "Buchou usually does that because she's too tired to do it at night." I gave him another dry look. Suddenly, the shower door opened, revealing a red haired girl, just as buxom as the black haired girl from earlier. Her long hair was still wet from the shower, but she was wearing her uniform. I didn't know who she was, so I asked the obvious question.

"Who are you people, anyway?" Rias cleared her voice before introducing herself "I'm Rias Gremory, the President of the Occult Research Club. This…" she gestured to the black haired girl "Is Akeno Hinejima." The black haired girl smiled at me, in a way that sent shivers down my spine.

"Our mascot, Koneko Tojou." The white haired girl looked at me for a few seconds and then went back to eating her sweets. "And you've already met Kiba." I nodded in understanding, but I still had one question "Why did you call me here, then?" Rias took a deep breath. Then, two bat like wings unfurled from her back.

"Because we are devils."

I stared at them all for about a minute and replied, "I'm not particularly surprised by that. I've met Angels of both kinds, so you guys are really not surprising. Plus, I can sense your aura." Rias looked a little shocked, but she wasn't that shaken. He _was_ Garth Luna, someone who'd become a household name in the Three Great Powers. She decided to ask her second question "Why did you come to Kuoh? As far as I know, you don't have any reason for being here." We didn't have any reason for hiding our intentions, so I told her honestly.

"I do. We came because my sister and I heard that two devil nobles attended this school. Well, I've met one of them now. Also, there are reports of a rogue Fallen Angel cell. I can give you some more information on them." Rias frowned. It seemed that she'd heard similar reports, but she still wanted the information "Well, what can you tell us about them?" I grinned evilly. This was going to be great fun.

"Honestly speaking, nothing. But… If you do something for me, I might consider it." Rias' group looked at me in disgust, while Rias herself looked down.

"Did I say something wrong? You know, I only wanted to test your peerage's strength. They _are_ your peerage, right?" Suddenly, they all had a dumbfounded expression on their faces. I still didn't understand what they thought I was going to do. But I chose not to care. It seemed too troublesome. I carried on anyway "I'd like to spar against all of you, so that I can see where you are in terms of strength." Akeno looked at me curiously "Why would you need to do that, Garth-san?" I looked at all of them "Simple. The Fallen Angels that we're looking for are no joke. And if their leader is who I think he is, then the average person can't touch him. It would be good for my goal if you stayed alive, so I'm going to try and get you to a point where you can at least put up a fight against him. You're too weak right now." Harsh words, but they needed to be said.

Rias was about to protest, but I put up my hand to stop her "Look, if you don't believe me, let's go outside and settle this." I then exited the room.

XxX

They had decided to let Garth run through a gauntlet, since both sides thought it would be easier to judge strength in a one on one fight. Pretty much anything was allowed, except for killing your opponent. The rest of the Gremory group was standing away from the match.

Rias decided to send out Kiba first. The two combatants stood a few feet apart, silently regarding each other. This carried on for about a minute, until they both took out their weapons. In Garth's hands appeared the Storm Spear, while Kiba materialized a European long sword. That told Garth a lot about Kiba's abilities. Kiba settled into his stance. This was a speed-based stance where one kept the sword on their bottom left side and bent down so that they could move in bursts of speed.

"Are you ready?" Garth just pointed his spear at Kiba. Kiba then rushed forward at breakneck speeds. Garth stopped the attack with his spear and then kicked Kiba in the stomach. "Try again. You're too predictable."

Before Kiba could get up though, Garth sent him skidding away with a right hook. "Get up, Kiba-san. We're not done here yet." He soon had to jump out of the way when a field of swords suddenly appeared around Kiba. The swords surrounded the man himself, panting slightly. It seemed that the technique was very energy intensive.

But Garth didn't really see it as a problem. _'Sword Birth? Well that's a surprise. However, he isn't using it like he could. Jeanne was much more of a challenge.'_ Kiba stood up, seemingly recovered from those first two hits. But he'd be lying if he said he had. He was still feeling pain from the kick. _'Just how strong is he? He hasn't even used his spear yet and he's still giving me this much trouble.'_

Kiba was brought out of thoughts when he saw Garth running through his swords using the spear like it was nothing. Once he got through the innermost layer, he threw the spear at Kiba's feet. Kiba looked at him inquisitively, before he saw the sparks running across the spear. Then he realized that he'd been led along.

"Sorry Kiba-san, it's my win." He clicked his fingers and large bolt of lightning struck Kiba, electrocuting the devil and knocking him out. Garth walked towards the body of his opponent. He then bent down besides him to check for any problems.

' _Thank goodness. He's still breathing. That would've been difficult to explain.'_ Kiba wasn't too badly hurt, but he was covered in electric burns. Plus he'd fainted. After confirming his condition, Garth looked at the rest of the Gremory team.

"Who's next?"

The Gremory group was still in shock at Kiba's defeat. Yes, he couldn't beat Akeno or Rias, but he was still strong, as far as devils went. Rias, especially was deep in thought _'He beat Kiba this easily? And he wasn't hit once the entire time! I think I might've bitten off more than I could choose with this one. Maybe Koneko might be able to at least tire him out for a bit.'_ As if on cue, the white haired girl made her way to the field. Garth went back into his original stance "So it's you this time." Koneko said nothing, as there was nothing to say.

He was the first to move this time, with a straight charge. Koneko narrowly dodged the attack, but wasn't quick enough to dodge the next. As a result, the butt of his spear hit her. She quickly recovered from the hit and threw a haymaker at him. Garth jumped over her fist, so in the end Koneko hit the ground, creating spider web cracks using her strength.

"That would've hurt if you'd hit me." Again, Koneko didn't reply, opting to try and hit him with a roundhouse, which he caught. Ignoring the look of shock on her face, he pulled her up by the leg and slammed her down on her back, creating spider web cracks of his own. Then he brought her up again and threw her a few meters away.

' _I think I fractured a few bones with that one. Hope she's ok.'_

Apparently she was, because she got up again and went into a wobbly stance. "You're still trying to stand up. I can respect that. But…" her eyes widened as he appeared in front of her.

' _Fast!'_

He punched her in the stomach "It means nothing if you can't do anything else." He set her down on the ground and checked her vitals as well. He'd fractured a few ribs and possibly dislocated her leg, but it wasn't anything he couldn't fix later.

Rias and Akeno were livid. Even thought they'd agreed to the spar, it didn't mean that they weren't angry with their friends getting destroyed like that. Garth noticed their anger and looked at them blankly "What? You're the ones who agreed to this. If you thought that I was going to be nice about this you thought wrong. I had every intention of taking this seriously." He tapped his spear on his back "Well, I'm waiting." Akeno walked towards the field.

"Ufufufu, you were very rough with our kouhai's, Garth-san." Akeno put her hand on her cheek and blushed slightly "I wonder if you'll be that rough with me…"

"I knew there was something strange about you, but this is getting kind of creepy. Can we just get on with th-!" Garth had to dodge a lighting bolt from Akeno, who was now rising into the sky with lightning running all over her body.

"Ara ara, I wasn't expecting you to dodge that. Can you take more?" The blush on her face grew even more prominent with each bolt of lightning. Garth started to come to a certain conclusion. _'Don't tell me… She's a sadist? Actually come to think of it, she reminds me of someone… No way. Barakiel? That's weird, then.'_ He jumped out of the way of another lightning bolt.

"Ufufufu, you really are quite a lot of fun. Maybe I'm falling for you~" Garth just gave her a blank look, before charging up his spear with an obscene amount of energy. Due to the amount of energy being fed to the spear, thunderclouds began to gather around the area and the ground started rumbling.

Not that Garth cared. He just wanted to end this match quickly. "You know, I don't usually go this far for opponents at your level, but you seem to be a special case. So sorry about this, but…" An extreme amount of electricity gathered around the spear, making it look like an actual lighting bolt about seven feet long **"Almighty Bolt!"** he threw the spear at Akeno, who was unable to dodge it in time. She got struck by the attack, which lasted for about five minutes before dissipating. Akeno fell down to the ground, covered in still fresh electric burns, but Garth managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Luckily, she was still breathing. Notably, she wore an unnerving smile on her face.

' _I don't even want to know.'_

" **And for once, neither do I."**

' _Well, that leaves us with one more.'_

A red aura had gathered around Rias. If she was angry before, she was absolutely furious right now. Her closest friends, all beaten, while the man responsible acted as if he was just going through the motions. It pained her to be utterly helpless as her peerage was defeated one by one. Kiba had severe electric burns all over his body, Koneko's ribs were fractured and her leg dislocated. Akeno had burns just like Kiba.

But Garth was unharmed. Rias wanted to use all her power just to wipe that bored look on his face. Garth saw how angry the Gremory heiress was and said, "I guess it's just you and me, Rias. Well, if you really want to know, you've failed so far. But I wasn't expecting you to pass." Rias' aura deflated a little.

"But then…"

"Why? I wanted to see if you had the drive to get stronger. Most people in the supernatural world have some sort of superiority complex, since they think that they're so much better than humans. But if a human trains hard enough, they can stand on the same stage as them. Thus, if your group members had given up, then I would've let them go. But now you have a _chance_. You still haven't convinced me yet." Garth put his spear in his storage dimension and began emitting large amounts of golden energy.

"That doesn't mean I won't show my true power. _This_ is the real test, Gremory-san!" Rias was struggling to stand her ground in the face of Garth's power, but stand she did. She would put in as much effort as her peerage members.

XxX

 _Location: Kuoh Academy, Student Council Room_

 _A few minutes earlier_

"I'll be frank. Why did you come here, Luna-san? There is nothing here for you and your brother to be concerned with in Kuoh that we know of." Sona was sitting at her desk, while Tsubaki stood next to her. Lulu sat on one of the guest chairs, with the Moogle doll on her lap.

"I'll answer your question, as this is your territory. My brother and I came for a number of reasons. One was that we could keep an eye on you and Gremory-san. The other is to deal with a rogue Fallen Angel cell that we obtained information on."

Sona nodded in understanding, before speaking again "We also have some information on Fallen Angel activity, but we didn't know that they were rogue. That makes things more difficult. As for keeping an eye on me and Rias Gremory, I don't see any particular need for that."

Even though Lulu was a bit irritated with what Sona said, she couldn't really blame the girl. She didn't really know just _whom_ they were dealing with. "With all due respect Sitri-san, the leader of this cell is far out of your league." Now it was Sona's turn to be irritated. But Lulu was being completely serious. "Who is it?"

"We have reason to believe that it's Kokabiel. As for his motive, we think that he may be trying to start a second Great War by killing you two. You are the Maous' sisters after all." As soon as she'd said the name Kokabiel, Sona blanched.

If what Lulu said was true, then they were dealing with a being that could level 10 Kuoh Towns, without them being able to do anything about it! However, she didn't get any time to think about that, as she nearly jumped out of her chair when she felt a large spike of aura.

As she looked outside to see where it was coming from, she saw a large lightning bolt hitting someone very familiar. Tsubaki was able to identify the victim "Is that… Hinejima-san!" Lulu and her Moogle doll weren't too surprised. Garth would do this kind of thing. But she had to alleviate any worries the two might have had.

"Don't worry about that. My brother was supposed to be talking to Gremory-san. Knowing him, he probably decided to test her strength. They won't get too badly hurt." The two devils were still worried, but they decided to take Lulu's word for it and sat down.

XxX

' _So powerful... What is this man? And why that shape?'_ Rias was sweating from the pressure that Garth was now emitting. Instead of flickering, the golden energy took the shape of an eastern dragon curled around the boy. Needless to say, Rias was intimidated.

"Gremory-san, I don't usually do this. But this _is_ important. How will you stand against those more powerful than you?" Then he took a deep breath and began chanting.

" **I am the one who sacrifice it all for the people. I am the unsung, the reluctant and the forgotten."**

The ethereal dragon curled up even tighter, before disappearing and bathing Garth in light.

" **Pride is not my way, but my vice."**

The light dissipated, revealing golden armor with white accents

" **All foes fear my name, for I am…"**

The rest of the light disappeared, making the rest of Garth visible. He was wearing a whit and gold helmet, which had a pink pouf at the back. He also had a pink and gold shield, which had four wings on each corner and an infinity insignia in the center. Finally, he wielded a gold and purple spear, which was slightly taller than him.

" **The Hero."**

Rias was still speechless from Garth's new look. If he weren't going to use it to intimidate her (which he'd already succeeded in doing a long time ago), she would be enthralled by it's beauty. Garth called out to her "Well, Gremory-san. Are you ready?" Rias said nothing, but that didn't mean that she wasn't scared.

' _He was this strong all along? No wonder we were beaten like that! But my peerage fought him anyway. So I'll do the same!'_ Her course of action decided, Rias began charging up a blast of black and red energy, hoping to at least get one attack in before her defeat.

They didn't notice Sona, Tsubaki and Lulu making their way to the edge of the field. Sona and Tsubaki were sweating slightly from the pressure, while Lulu didn't even seem to be breathing differently. Sona would have tried to stop the fight, had Lulu not held her back. This needed to be done.

"Take this!" Rias fired the attack she'd been readying for the past few minutes. It hit Garth point blank, but Rias didn't stop powering the beam until she started running out of energy. A large cloud of dust was kicked up by the attack. Rias was panting heavily.

Sona and Tsubaki watched the scene in amazement. They'd never seen Rias use so much power on one being. Lulu however, wasn't impressed "I hope that isn't all her power. Otherwise, she's lost already." Tsubaki looked at her "What do you mean?"

"Watch." The dust cleared, making Garth visible. He was unscathed, as he'd used his shield to block the attack. Once she saw this, Rias despaired. She'd used all her power in that attack. And not a mark was on his body? Even the shield was fine! Lulu had a smug look on her face "That's what I meant. Garth's armor is strong enough to take attacks from Gods without breaking. Gremory-san's attack won't do anything." Sona wasn't as surprised as her queen, but she was still shocked _'He shrugged off an attack like that, as if it was nothing. And from what we saw outside, he managed to completely destroy Rias' peerage. We may need to intervene.'_

"Don't even think about it, Sitri-san. This is her fight."

Back at the field, Garth was still slightly disappointed. Rias had used all her power, even though she knew she was unmatched, but that wasn't what he'd meant.

She needed to learn how to fight smart. Well, she'd passed the test anyway. But he still wanted to rile her up. "Nice move. But it wasn't enough, Gremory-san. Let me show you _my_ best move." Garth settled into a charging stance and began focusing all of his power into his spear. Once again, the energy took the form of a dragon bearing down on Rias.

"This is an attack for when my enemy is too strong for me to defeat without giving it my all. But you get to see it for free." Rias tried to stand up straight, but the fear was finally getting to her.

Sona and Tsubaki were trying their best not to run to their friend, but now even Lulu had a frown on her face. _'I might need to get involved now. That attack would hurt Gremory-san especially. You can't recruit a dragon when you fear dragons.'_ A purple aura gathered around Lulu "Garth-kun, I think you're going too far. So, **Thundara**!"

"Get- AAARGH!" Garth was interrupted when a giant bolt of lightning struck him. He cancelled his attack and looked around for the culprit "Okay, who was th-OW!" A bolt struck him again. That was when he caught Lulu smiling a sickly sweet smile "Now, now Garth-kun. You can't reveal your abilities that easily." Seeing this, Garth quickly dispelled his armor and weapon. Then he looked around at the destruction that had been caused by his power.

The ground had spider web cracks running all over it and there was a small crater where he'd slammed Koneko. The peerage themselves were all unconscious, as Garth had knocked them all out during the gauntlet. Of course Lulu was unhappy. Garth had caused quite a lot of trouble here. He looked at Rias and Lulu sheepishly "I'm sorry?"

He was promptly hit with Thundaga repeatedly, until Lulu was satisfied. The three devils could only look at the scene in shock.

 _Location: Kuoh Academy, Occult Research Clubroom_

 _A few minutes later_

"And there! Well Gremory-san, I've healed all of your peerage. Now we just need to wait for them to wake up so that we can continue." Garth and the others were in the ORC clubroom. After Lulu had finished punishing her 'little brother', Garth had offered to heal them as an apology for over doing it.

Well, that's what Lulu told him to say. He would've healed them regardless. Then, Akeno began to stir. "Ah, that hurt a lot. Ufufufu… Oh, I'm back here." The Moogle doll got up from the chair, surprising everyone "She's awake, kupo. That's actually pretty unexpected. Most people die from Almighty Bolt… Unless Garth was holding back, kupo." The reactions of the four devils varied greatly. Rias had sparkles in her eyes, as if she wanted to hug the doll, Tsubaki looked like she was trying to resist the urge, Akeno just put her hand on her cheek and smiled.

And Sona… she just gave it the same calculating stare. Out of nowhere, the red ball on top of the Moogle doll's head started glowing. Lulu rose her eyebrows in surprise "Someone's calling. I wonder who, though?" A screen opened up on top of the doll, but before the group could see who it was, they heard him.

" **What the hell, Goldie? I could feel your aura from Kyoto! Even Baka-Sura and Ulquiorra could feel it, and they aren't even dragon slayers!"**

It was Karma.

' _Oh no. Of all people, why_ him _?'_ Garth nearly switched off the broadcast there and then. But Lulu wouldn't be happy at all. Thanks to Karma's noise, the other two devils woke up. First was Kiba "Who's making so much noise? Eh? How did I get to the clubroom? The last thing I remember is Garth getting me with a trap…" Then came Koneko, who was still rubbing her eyes "Un… Noisy…" Garth really didn't want to deal with Karma at this point, but he had to be civil "What are you doing in Kyoto? I thought you were still in England." Karma scratched his head sheepishly.

" **About that… There's a problem. Remember Saber-chan's obsession with Excalibur?"** Garth and Lulu nodded. Who could forget? Saber's sword was also an Excalibur, albeit one from another world. However, she was most unhappy with the fact that this world's Excalibur was broken. Thus, Saber and Karma were on a journey to find all of the pieces of this world's Excalibur and possibly reunite them.

" **Well, someone stole fragments from the Church. And we have information that suggests that they're in Japan. So, we came to ask Baka-Sura and Ulquiorra if they'd seen anything."** The devils in the room all blanched at this news. Rias was the first to react "Wait, the Excalibur fragments were stolen? I thought the Church kept them under maximum security?" Karma put one finger on his lips in mock thought "They do. But the guy who stole them seems to be able to get past that. Anyway, I have to go now. I'll tell you more once I get new information on this." With that, the transmission ended. Suddenly feeling very drained, Garth plopped on to the couch "He's in Japan… And so is Asura. What did I ever do to deserve this?" Lulu giggled behind her hand "Well, Ulquiorra-san and Saber-san have to deal with them now." Even Bombax and the doll added their own two cents.

"Thank goodness. He's really annoying, kupo! And he's always fighting with Asura whenever they meet, kupo!"

" **As long as those arms are far away from me, I'm fine. Maybe not, now that I think about it. The guy's a bastard like that."** Now everyone else was confused. Tsubaki looked at Lulu enquiringly "Who are these people? Are they your allies?"

"Yes, but Garth, Ulquiorra, Karma and Asura have a sort of constant feud going on, so they'll act like that. Karma and Asura fight a lot and it's always left to Garth or Ulquiorra to solve it, as Saber and I would rather leave and not get caught up in it." Sona nodded in understanding, while Rias went back to staring at the Moogle doll.

Suddenly, she grabbed the Moogle doll "Kyaaa! I can't resist it anymore!" She began to suffocate the poor thing with her ample bosom. Everyone, barring Kiba (who'd been in a dark mood since Karma mentioned Excalibur) sweatdropped when they saw this.

"Help me, kupo!" Bombax began to chuckle darkly **"No, I think you're just fine, Mog."** The recently named Mog looked absolutely betrayed. Now it was Akeno's turn "Garth-kun, who is that?" Garth craned his neck around to look at her "That's Bombax. I met him a while back and he's been travelling with me ever since."

Now that they'd all had their little talk, they went back to their original topic. Lulu looked at the devils seriously "As I said to Sitri-san, the reason why we're here is to deal with a rogue Fallen Angel faction, led by Kokabiel. From the information we've gathered, he plans to attack Kuoh Town, with a focus on you two in about a month. So we came here to warn and help you two. Any questions?" Sona piped up.

"Why would you try to warn us about this? From what I can tell, you and your brother wouldn't be affected at all by this." Lulu arched her eyebrows in interest. It seemed that Sona Sitri was a lot smarter than the mage thought.

"Our goal is to keep the peace between the Three Factions and possibly get them to work together. Devils, Angels and Fallen Angels are all strong beings, but the inherently weak humans are always caught in the crossfire of your conflicts. I don't hate you for it, as it can't be helped. But it wouldn't be a bad thing if all three factions could work together. What Kokabiel plans to do would destroy any chances at achieving our goal, so we plan to stop him."

Once again all the devils were surprised. An alliance between the Three Factions? Absurd! With all that had been done during the Great War, the idea of the three ever reconciling was just that, an idea. They were interrupted by Garth suddenly getting up. He gave the devils an apologetic look "Sorry, but something just came up. So I'll have to go. **Zoom**." His form was encased in a blue light, before it vanished all together. Lulu also made to get up "Well, I'll have to be leaving as well. I'd like to do some work." It seemed that she used a different transportation spell to Garth, as she had a purple magic circle appear beneath her before she vanished, along with Mog.

Koneko summed up the meeting quite well "Those two are strange." The other devils could only nod in agreement.

XxX

 _Location: Kuoh Town, Rooftop_

When I arrived at my destination, I saw an odd sight. Two people were at the rooftop. But that wasn't the strange part. One, a young woman with black hair was looking at Kuoh Academy through a pair of binoculars. She had the look of someone who'd been carrying many years' worth of bitterness. Her companion, a shapely blue haired woman was someone he recognized.

"Hey, you're that girl I met at Grigori HQ." Kalawarner nearly jumped in surprise. She'd still been daydreaming. Raynare however, didn't jump. No, she just gave him a look of utmost hatred " _You_." Garth was slightly confused at this. He didn't remember doing anything to warrant the girl's animosity when he was at Grigori HQ. "Wait, do I know you?" If looks could kill, the one she gave him would've slaughtered him ten times over. Luckily, the blue haired woman stopped her from doing anything stupid "Garth-san? I-" She stopped as Raynare gave her a look.

She then nodded apologetically before unfurling her wings and quickly flying away along with her partner. Garth's suspicions were confirmed. "Bombax, I think we've found our people."

" **Yeah. But what are you going to do about the blue-haired one? Are you going to fight her too?"** Garth sighed in trepidation "I don't want to, but if I need to…" He used Zoom once again to get to the apartment.

 _Location: Garth's Room_

"Home sweet home. And just in time too. Lulu-nee might've blasted me again." He was rummaging through his wardrobe when he noticed a bat sitting on his windowsill. It had a note in its mouth. He opened the windowsill and took the note from the bat, before opening it and reading it out loud " _I, Rias Gremory would like to invite you to join the Occult Research Club._

 _P.S I would like for you to help with watching Hyodou Issei._ Well, I don't mind doing that. It would give me something to do until we get a lead. But I'm too tired to care." He finally found his boxers. So he put them on and crawled into his bed, before going into slumber. He'd have more than enough time to worry about this type of thing tomorrow.

Character Information:

 **Name:** Rias Gremory

 **Age:** 18

 **Height:** 5'6'' (167,6 cm)

 **Appearance:** Has long, crimson hair that ends in an 'ahoge' (antennae) on the top of her head. Notably buxom, with unusually large breasts. Also has big blue eyes.

 **Likes:** Her peerage, pretty much anything Japanese, her family

 **Dislikes:** Riser Phenex, being seen as 'Rias Gremory', her brother's antics

 **Abilities/Weapons:** Power of Destruction, Nocturnal Vision, Flight, Light/Holy Weakness, Instant Translation, 8 Pawn Evil Pieces, 1 Bishop Evil Piece, 1 Knight Evil Piece and 1 Rook Evil Piece

Rias is one of the Devils currently in charge of Kuoh Town, along with Sona Sitri. Because of her heritage, Rias has had to deal with a lot of pressure in her life, such as her upcoming engagement with Riser Phenex. Like all Gremorys, she is known for treating her peerage like equals and friends, instead of as servants. She is currently considering making Issei Hyodou (a possible Longinus wielder) part of her peerage.

 **Name:** Akeno Hinejima

 **Age:** 18

 **Height:** 5'7" (170,2 cm)

 **Appearance:** Has long black hair. Notably buxom, with enormous breasts, also has violet eyes

 **Likes:** S&M, teasing others, Rias

 **Dislikes:** All Fallen Angels, Riser Phenex, irresponsible parents

 **Abilities/Weapons:** Queen Piece Boost, Prodigious Thunder Magic, Holy Lightning (Sealed), Flight, Nocturnal Vision, Light/Holy Weakness, Instant Translation

Akeno is the Queen of Rias Gremory's peerage. A known sadist, she takes pleasure in causing and receiving pain. Also, due to her being Barakiel's daughter, she has an affinity with lightning-based attacks. Unfortunately, due to an incident involving her father, she hates all Fallen Angels and will not hesitate to kill them in cold blood. To her allies, she's strange, but likeable. To her enemies, she is the scariest member of the Gremory peerage.

 **Name:** Kiba Yuuto

 **Age:** 17

 **Height:** 5'7''

 **Appearance:** Quite handsome, with platinum blonde hair and green eyes. Lean body shape suited for speed fighters. Also had a beauty mark under his left eye.

 **Likes:** Healthy food, good swordsmanship, chivalry

 **Dislikes:** Holy Swords, the Church, dishonorable people

 **Abilities/Weapons:** Knight Piece Boost, Expert Swordsman, Sword Birth (can create any demonic sword he wishes), Flight, Nocturnal Vision, Light/Holy Weakness, Instant Translation

Kiba is Rias Gremory's Knight. He is known among students as the 'Prince' of Kuoh Academy. Like Garth, fangirls and jealous boys alike incessantly plague him. Due to him being a subject of the infamous Holy Sword Project, he has an intense hatred for the Church and Holy Swords, especially Excalibur.

 **Name:** Koneko Tojou

 **Age:** 15

 **Height:** 5'1'' (155 cm)

 **Appearance:** Petite, with child-like features. Has golden-yellow eyes and white hair.

 **Likes:** Sweets, TV, video games

 **Dislikes:** Perverts, Senjutsu, water

 **Abilities:** Youjutsu (Youkai Arts, Sealed), Senjutsu (Sage Arts, Sealed), Rook Piece Boost, Heightened Senses, Flight, Nocturnal Vision, Light/Holy Weakness, Instant Translation

Koneko is Rias Gremory's Rook. She is also the Occult Research Club's mascot. Koneko is usually quite, only speaking when she needs to. She is also well known for her tracking skills, which is why Rias will usually send her out to monitor interesting people in Kuoh. After her sister, Kuroka killed their master to keep her sister safe. However, Koneko was told that her sister had gone mad due to the power of Senjutsu. Thus she has renounced any parts of her Youkai heritage and gets extremely agitated when dealing with Senjutsu users.

 **A/N: And that's the end of the chapter. You'll notice that Lulu doesn't get much screen time. But that's because this was a chapter focusing on the student's interactions.**

 **So Lulu would've been a bit out of place. But things will change after the Catalyst Arc (which is the arc after this one, the Genesis Arc). There's a reason why I haven't put in certain characters' information in yet. I told you the reason at the end of the last chapter, but I need to elaborate:**

 **A character that doesn't have any information on any one of the categories usually won't get a character bio until that category is filled. So Issei won't be getting a character bio until the start of the Catalyst Arc and so on.**

 **So, please review and I'll be posting within 1-2 weeks!**

 **Next Chapter: 'When in Kyoto…'**


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